Taking the wind out of the city’s economy

The Tamil Nadu government had declared a holiday for all government, government-aided private schools, colleges and other educational institutions in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur districts. The state also advised private sector organisations to allow their workers to avail of leave or work from home, due to which a majority of the private companies remained only closed in anticipation of the landfall impact of Cyclone Vardah. 

K Purushothaman, Senior Director, Nasscom, TN & Kerala, said the IT companies had been suggested to follow the government advisory and take necessary precautionary actions in view of the anticipated effects of the cyclone. “Major IT companies such as TCS and Cognizant had decided to pause their operations for a day and their employees had been notified accordingly,” he said, adding that reports received confirm that majority of the IT firms remained shut during the day.

An official of a BPO unit, employing over 1,100 people in a single shift, operating on the OMR stretch speaking to DTNext said they chose to keep their shutters open. In the morning shift attendance dwindled by about 30 per cent. By the afternoon, the staff strength came to half and it is not clear as to whether the night shift employees would come to work. However, shuttle services and other logistical facilities had been arranged. 

At the Ambattur Industrial Estate, that houses over 2,000 SMEs, it was a complete shutdown. Estimating the business loss in this estate to be in the tune of Rs 75 to Rs 100 crore, on Monday alone, KS Jeyaraman, owner of Autotech Industries’ (a Tier 1 auto parts maker) said he had received the government notification’s on Monday which had hastened the process of declaring the day off for companies. 

“Till morning, we were not sure whether to keep it open or close. We had global customers visiting us. I managed to safely escort them back to their hotel. But in the afternoon, seeing many fallen trees and gusty winds made us realise the extent of the cyclone’s impact in progress,” he said, adding that conservancy workers were seen quickly clearing up the fallen trees to make the pathways motorable. 

In Gummidipoondi, where he has another factory, the cyclone effect has been severe. “We have incurred heavy damage there. Nearly six roof sheets of our unit have got ‘lifted’ off and blown off to a nearby place. Some eight trees or so have been uprooted and the factory gates have borne the brunt. The security guard, with whom I am in constant touch, is alright, thankfully,” he said, noting that it was possible to assess the extent of damage only tomorrow.

K Saraswathi, Secretary-General, The Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says 80 per cent of the core companies associated with the chamber, were shut in view of the cyclone. The directive from the Labour department had spurred the companies to take the decision, she said, naming Sanmar, Grundfos, Sundaram Finance, Rane, Wabco, Ucal and India Pistons among the corporates which chose to close their operations. 

An Associate Director of an IT company in Guindy Industrial Estate, said attendance was only 10 per cent. Power supply had been disrupted in some places and most of the offices in the estate remained shut. Women employees had been directed to work from home while the senior management staff, who had come to office, were also heading to their home, he said. 

A public-sector bank manager, who spoke to DTNext, said after the weekend, tomorrow’s bank holiday had led people to come to the branch for transactions. “We had full attendance. Customers came and some even with their children, fearing for their safety. For two hours in the morning we did transact business but we did not have power. Thereafter, we had network connectivity intermittently. But when that too failed at noon or so, the banking staff decided to head home,” says the manager of the bank, which is located 12 km inside from Vandalur zoo. Apparently, lady branch heads, including one who travelled from Saligramam to Injambakkam, despite the inclement and calamitous weather, had reported for work to ensure that most branches were operating at full strength.