Chennai has witnessed continuous spells of heavy rain since midnight of June 19 causing water logging in low lying parts of areas such as Velachery, Guindy, Vepery, GST Road and KK Nagar. Ten flights which were to land in Chennai Airport were diverted to Bengaluru airport during the wee hours on Monday, and 17 flights bound for international travel have been delayed.
The underpass of Kathipara junction which connects the Grand Southern Trunk road, Inner Ring road, Anna Salai and Mount-Poonamallee road has been flooded. Reports suggest that three feet of rain inundated the underpass and the vehicles have been diverted. However, the Greater Chennai Corporation officials have begun repair works. In addition to the Kathipara junction, residents near Velachery check post raised complaints of water logging and the GCC workers have taken cognisance and repair works are underway.
Reports suggest that prime areas of Chennai including Meenambakkam and Nandhanam have recorded 13.7 cm and 11.7 cm rain within a span of eight hours. Neighbouring Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur districts have recorded 7.9 cm and 5 cm rain respectively.
Sameeran, Deputy Commissioner of GCC told Puthiya Thalaimurai, “We have been constantly monitoring all the complaints raised by citizens all night. We have drained water from subways where water logging was reported last night. Our team is on the field since the rain might continue for the next few hours.”
As a result of water stagnation in Chennai’s Meenambakkam airport runways, 10 flights which were to land in Chennai from Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, London, Sharjah, Colombo, Muscat and Singapore have been diverted to Bengaluru. Flights to Delhi, Andaman, Frankfurt, Dubai, London and several other destinations are running three to six hours behind schedule.
Meanwhile, the fire department has cleared fallen trees in eight areas including, Sembiam, Kolathur, the Secretariat in Egmore, Mylapore, Guindy, and T Nagar among others.