Chennai airport to be shut till December 6

A NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) has been issued by AAI, which manages the airport, to all air operators with regard to suspension of flight operations till 6 am tomorrow.

The navy had already deployed several motorised boats and personnel, spokesperson Aloke Bhatnagar said.

All flights to and from Chennai, including BA 036 due to land at Heathrow at 13.05 today and BA035 due to leave at 14.15, have been cancelled.

Water-logging inside the airport.

Chennai airport authorities had initially shut operations till this morning but due to incessant rains it has now chose to extend the closure till Sunday.

“My father is 85 and a cardiac patient, we are waiting to be rescued for six hours now, please pray that it stops raining”, she said from Chennai’s Munambakkam neighbourhood, which has seen 294mm of rain since Tuesday. The Adyar river is still overflowing.

Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) is a notice containing information concerning the establishment, condition, or change in any facility, service or procedure, among others, in airspace management.

Besides rushing in with rescue teams, the armed forces have also launched UAVs to get an assessment of the situation.

Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said in New Delhi that the situation was “unheard of and unprecedented”, and promised all help to the beleaguered city and other areas.

A large part of the road near Madhya Kailash temple in the heart of the city in an area that connects the IT corridor has caved in resulting in a huge crater and disrupting traffic.

The airport, which past year handled an average of more than 40,000 passengers and 340 aircraft movements per day, has been hit by severe storms and flooding caused by a major depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal.

Heavy rains continued to batter Tamil Nadu, including the state capital Chennai, throwing normal life out of gear as the death toll in the rain related incidents has risen to 188 since October. The state government has also sought more motorised boats, which were being sent by the Centre, it stated.

Budget carrier IndiGo has announced cancellation of all flights from Chennai.

Though the heavy rains that lashed the city and the suburbs and neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore for more than a day yesterday have shown a let up since this morning, a continuous drizzle under overcast skies spelled further trouble for citizens.