Home Minister reviews flood situation
AMN /
Normalcy is returning in flood affected Chennai, with fast pace as the sky is clear and there is bright sunshine except for the occasional light showers at isolated locations. Water is also receding from many part of the city.
Official sources said relief and rescue operations are almost complete and the focus has shifted to rehabilitating the flood affected
Telecommunication and train services have been partially restored, besides many roads have also become fairly motorable.
Official data say the outflow from major reservoirs in adjoining Tiruvallur district has come down drastically, allaying fears of fresh flooding.
However, some low-lying areas like Velacherry, West Saidapet, Jafferkhanpet and Madipakkam still lie under waist-deep water.
Weather forecast for the city says there would be intermittent showers for the next three days though the central and southern coastal districts and southern interior regions would experience widespread heavy rain, under the influence of the Low Pressure Area, that has moved to the Bay of Bengal near Kanyakumari and Srilanka.
In Chennai, availability of essential items like milk, candles and petroleum and diesel remains an area of concern.
Vehicles form snaky queues in front of the very few fuel outlets in Chennai that entertain customers as others display the board saying they are out of stock.
However, petroleum agencies say there is no shortage of stock but there are bottlenecks in operating enough number of tankers compounded by power supply and waterlogging issues in some of the outlets.
Electricity supply is being resumed in most parts of the city, though some heavily inundated areas are devoid of it for over seven days.
Vegetable prices have skyrocketed, and vendors say there are prospects of the prices easing down in a few days.
Naval vessels INS Shakti and INS Shyadhri arrived Chennai port with fresh loads of relief materials and offers of help also pour in from throughout the country to the rain-hit state.
The central and state rescue teams are continuously engaged in relief operations.
Train services are being operated on a very limited scale from Chennai Egmore terminal, and the suburban trains are operated only between Egmore and Tambaram as issues concerning signal, power and rail tracks continue.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today reviewed the flood situation in Tamil Nadu, FAndhra Pradesh and Puducherry at a high level meeting in New Delhi today.
Subsequently, Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha also chaired a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee and discussed the situation with state governments and concerned Ministries involved in relief and rescue operations.