Incessant showers flood 87 spots, fells 16 trees

“Many interior roads in Choolaimedu and Kodambakkam area are full of potholes, and the stagnations affected the free flow of traffic. The Chennai Corporation should repair the potholes in the city before the next spell of rains,” R Vasanth, a biker said.

Waterlog caused traffic snarls on major arterial roads. For example, crossing Central Railway Station nearly took 10 minutes as the rain battered the already-damaged Poonamallee High Road. “The road was damaged due to the ongoing metro rail works. Now, its condition has worsened,” another rider on Poonamallee High Road said.

Meanwhile, officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation said that the incessant rains felled 16 trees.

According to the Chennai Corporation data, four trees fell in Anna Nagar zone and three trees fell in Teynampet. “Two trees each have fallen in Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Kodambakkam. Adyar, Perungudi and Sholinganallur too reported fallen trees. All the trees, however, were removed from the road to clear the traffic,” an official said.

The Chennai Corporation also identified 87 waterlog-prone spots in the city. “Majority of water stagnation incidents were reported from Thiruvottiyur, Manali, Anna Nagar and Ambattur zones. Apart from this, subways such as Manickam Nagar, MC Road, CB Road, RBI Subway, Gengu Reddy Subway, Villivakkam Subway and Harrington Subways were inundated. But, the water was cleared using motor pumps,” the official added.

As the rain lashed out the city for two days without a break, officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation rescued 14 homeless people and sent them to night shelters on Thursday. According to an official from the civic body, the rescue drive was carried out across the city throughout the day. “We have rescued 14 people, all of whom were men and one was mentally disturbed. He was sent to a shelter for mentally ill people,” the official said. He added that the drive was conducted to rescue homeless people from the rain. “We will continue with the drive on Friday and take an ambulance with us. We will cover all the subways in the city to find and help more people,” the official added. The Greater Chennai Corporation runs 47 night-shelters for the homeless with the help of NGOs.

Heavy downpour has taken a toll on Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), too. The service was disrupted at St Thomas Mount Station for around two hours on Thursday morning due to a rain-induced technical failure. Following this, service from Mount station was suspended since 7.30 am after the “point flashing” at the station failed. The snag paralysed routing of trains from one track to another, forcing officials to operate trains from Alandur station, a senior CMRL official said.  The CMRL deployed its taxi and share autorickshaw feeder services to ferry commuters from St Thomas Mount station to Alandur station for free. Officials claimed that service was restored at St Thomas Mount station around 9 am.

Heavy rains led to signal failure between Tambaram and Chrompet railway stations, which affected the service for nearly an hour on Thursday. At around noon on Thursday, railway signals failed after cable short circuit following the incessant rain. Soon, all EMU trains from Chengalpattu-Beach, Beach-Tambaram and Chengalpattu EMU trains were halted. 

The service was resumed after railway officials replaced the damaged cables and rectified the signal fault around 1 pm. Passengers who waited at other stations were left fuming that there were no proper announcements regarding the delay, which put them in unnecessary hardship.

Traffic was blocked at Singapurumal Koil on Chennai-Trichy National Highway due to water stagnation on Thursday. Following continuous rain, the floodwater stagnated on the NH near Singapurumal Koil, as the stormwater drain built by the Highways Department was not cleaned periodically. This affected the movement of vehicles, hassling motorists and other commuters. Soon, the Kancheepuram collector P Ponnaiah visited the spot and directed officials to breach the drains so as to drain the water to the lake nearby.