Chennai to experience heavy rainfall for the next two days: IMD

The Chennai airport shut for operations till Sunday, December 6, the Rajali Naval air station near Arakonam, about 70 km west of the Tamil Nadu capital, will be converted into an airport.

Twelve trains leaving Chennai Egmore were already cancelled yesterday due to water overflowing on railway tracks between Villupuram – Tambaram section. Ford Motor, Daimler, Hyundai and Nissan told workers to stay at home, while USA listed outsourcing firm Cognizant shut its 11 local offices. The Chennai Airport has also been temporarily closed amidst heavy rainfall in the city. “Besides, hospitals have no power; students have not gone to schools for more than 15 days; books have been washed away”, said Kanimozhi.

Skymet, India’s only private weather forecasting agency, has said that the cyclonic circulation in the Bay of Bengal, which is the main reason behind the incessant rain, will move towards southern Tamil Nadu allowing Chennai relief.

“SriLankan will resume flights as soon as the Airport resumes operations and the Airline may operate a few extra flights to facilitate the stranded passengers in Chennai”, the statement further said.

More than 180 people have lost their lives in the disaster.

“The police want to help but there are no boats”. Not only that the people also enquired about the status of Chennai floods from Tamil Sangam, an organisation of the Tamil people living in Jaipur.

The deluge comes as the result of two weeks of pounding rains, and though this had slowed to a drizzle Wednesday morning, the Indian Meteorological Department warned that it would pick back up again in the next 48 hours.

On Tuesday, the State Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had requested the Central assistance in tackling the situation.

“For the safety of our employees, we have halted production at our Chennai assembly and engine plants on Wednesday, December 2”, a company spokesperson said in a statement.

No deaths were reported in the latest floods, but since heavy rain set in on 12 November there have been 150 deaths across the state.