Mild showers flood Chennai, suburbs

CHENNAI: A spell of light to moderate rain on Tuesday, the first significant precipitation after a 10-day dry period, brought the city and its suburbs to a standstill, highlighting chronic civic infrastructure failures. The rainfall, while not classified as heavy, was widespread.

What began as sporadic morning showers in the suburbs intensified into steady rainfall across the metropolitan area by noon, leading to severe waterlogging and traffic chaos on major arterial and interior roads.

Suburban areas including Tambaram, Pallavaram, Meenambakkam, Medavakkam, Vandalur, Kilambakkam, Urapakkam, and Selaiyur received intermittent showers from the morning. By afternoon, it had extended to Egmore, Kilpauk, Nungambakkam, Anna Salai, Royapettah, Guindy, Adyar, and Sholinganallur.

Despite its moderate intensity, it exposed a lack of pre-monsoon preparedness. Critical roads were swiftly inundated, transforming into virtual ponds and crippling vehicular movement for hours.

The Tambaram-Velachery Main Road was the worst, with commuters and residents alleging that clogged storm water drains on both sides, neglected by the Highways Department, were the primary cause. Other major thoroughfares like the Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road, Mudichur Road, and the Pallavaram-Anakaputhur-Kundrathur stretch faced similar gridlock.

Within the Tambaram Municipal Corporation limits, numerous streets were submerged. The public voiced strong criticism against the civic body, stating that the systematic failure to clean and desilt storm water drains and canals prevented rainwater from draining into lakes, forcing it to stagnate on roads and residential streets.

The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) has forecast light to moderate easterlies and northeasterlies over the region in the lower tropospheric levels. Monday’s upper air cyclonic circulation over south TN and neighbourhood at 3.1 km above mean sea level has become less marked.

Wednesday’s rainfall data from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm reported that Pallikaranai received 13.5 mm rainfall, Numgambakam had 12.3 mm, Taramani with 8.9 mm, and Memanbakkam received 8.8 mm. According to RMC’s weather bulletin, “Light to moderate rain is likely at isolated places with thunderstorm and lightning at one or two places over TN, at a few places over south TN, at isolated places over north TN and Puducherry areas. On December 18, light to moderate rain is likely at isolated places over TN, at isolated places over south TN. Dry weather is likely to prevail over north TN, Puducherry and Karaikal area.”

Up to December 22, the minimum temperature will dip to 22-degree Celsius and on some days, even 21 degrees in the city. The city may get light rain in some areas on Wednesday.