How the unpredictable rains caught Chennai off-guard

Chennai, Nov 08: In view of heavy rains that led to inundation here, vehicular traffic, bus and train services were hit on Sunday.

Though there was some delay in respect of a couple of flights, there was no major disruption in services, airport sources here said adding even passengers who arrived late due to showers were allowed to board, PTI reported.

Rain water -on runways- was pumped out by workers using heavy equipment and authorities are overseeing work aimed at ensuring normal services, sources added. Metrorail services were also not affected, an official said here.

There was a visible dip in state-run bus services, only fewer buses were operated in suburbs and train services were also affected.

Railway sources said the Basin Bridge yard here was flooded which led to disruption in routing trains, in and out of the Chennai Central Railway Station and a long distance train from Tiruvananthapuram had to be halted at Tirunindravur in the northern suburb.

Suburban train services in the Tambaram-Beach line was affected for sometime as railway tracks were covered by sheets of water.

Rainwater is being pumped out in affected areas, railway sources said.

An official release meanwhile said "Dr MGR Chennai Central-Mangalore Express Special scheduled to leave at 4.20 PM on Sunday is rescheduled to leave at 7.30 PM" due to late running of pairing train, of about 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Another train, bound for Jaipur would leave at 8.30 PM instead of 5.40 PM, the release said.

There were traffic diversions due to water logging and uprooted trees in several locations including the arterial EVR Salai, and subways witnessed inundation upto a height of several feet.

Police said the traffic movement is slow in view of water logging and advised the people to be cautious.
Several people said they found it difficult to get cabs or autorickshaws while some said drivers working for cab aggregators declined acceptance for travel.

Motorcycles, scooters and autorickshaws could be spotted stranded in many locations.

Civic and Public Works Department personnel worked to pump water out in inundated areas and also placed sandbags in locations including the Anna Nagar Peripheral Hospital campus.

(PTI)