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Chennai rain: Schools, colleges shut in Tamil Nadu today due to heavy rainfall | Details
Chennai rain updates: Over 300 locations report flooding in the city. Residents moved to relief centres, rescue workers on standby to evacuate people.
Chennai rain updates: The Tamil Nadu government announced a holiday for schools and colleges across four northern districts, including Tiruvallur, Chennai, Kancheepuram, and Chengelpet, on Wednesday (October 16) as heavy rainfall lashed the state, news agency PTI reported.
"Under its influence, isolated extremely heavy rainfall is very likely over Tamil Nadu on 16th October. Given the above, the Government has decided to declare a Public Holiday tomorrow," stated the chief minister's office.
All government offices including the offices of Public Undertakings, Corporations, boards etc will be closed on Tuesday in Chennai, Thiruvallur, Chengalpet and Kancheepuram.
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However, all essential services, such as Police, Fire Service, local bodies, milk supply, water supply, hospitals/medical shops, Banks, Financial Institutions, power supply, transport of vegetables, goods and other essential goods, Transport, MTC, MRTS, CMRL, Railways, Airport, Airlines Services, Port Services, Export and Import institutions, fuel outlets, hotels/ restaurants, etc., and all the offices engaged in disaster response, relief and rescue activities shall function as usual.
"All shops and other commercial establishments shall function as usual," as per CMO office.
Widespread, intermittent rain lashed Chennai and other parts of the state on Tuesday, leading to knee-deep water in roads around several residential neighbourhoods. Residents from flooding-prone Ram Nagar in Madippakkam parked their cars on the nearby Velachery bridge as a precautionary measure.
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Over 300 locations reported flooding across Chennai, affecting public transport services. Officials were deployed with heavy-duty pumps to clear waterlogging. No untoward rain-related incident has been reported so far, barring a wall collapse incident and injuries to a person.
The state government has stationed disaster response force teams, with over 200 boats, on standby across several vulnerable locations. In Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengelpet, and Kancheepuram districts, over 931 relief centres have been set up, with IAS officers monitoring the situation round the clock.
The Southern Railway announced the cancellation of four express trains, including the Chennai Central-Mysuru Kaveri Express. Several trains were diverted, and their origin station was shifted to Avadi, several stations away from the Chennai Central Railway station. Several domestic flights were cancelled at the Chennai airport.
Chief minister MK Stalin inspected flood relief operations and instructed officials to speed up draining rainwater in flood-prone localities. He also hailed the work of sanitary/civic workers and officials and said he would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the frontline workers.
Deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin also inspected and visited several lakes in Chennai and asked officials to ensure an uninterrupted flow of rainwater. He inspected the integrated command and control centre of Chennai Corporation, functioning from its headquarters, the Ripon Building, to review the ongoing work.
Localities like Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam in Chennai recorded heavy rainfall of 13 cm and 10 cm, respectively, till 7.30 pm on Tuesday. The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) upgraded the orange alert issued for Chennai to red alert on Tuesday, predicting isolated extremely heavy rainfall exceeding 20 cm on Wednesday.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast more rain for the next two days in Tamil Nadu and said that the well-marked low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal has intensified into a depression on Tuesday evening. “Heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain at one or two places is likely to occur over Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu and Chennai districts,” said an IMD bulletin.
(With PTI inputs)
