Sporadic rains in Chennai, flights to resume today

Intermittent rains Sunday and forecast of more over the next two days kept Chennai, its suburbs and coastal districts on their toes even as normal life appeared to be returning to the flood-ravaged areas.

All flight operations, domestic and international, and train services from both Chennai Central and Egmore are to resume Monday as water levels in the Adyar and Cooum rivers receded enabling authorities to restore tracks Sunday afternoon.

Throughout Sunday, there have been intermittent rains, which were at times heavy, in Chennai, its suburbs, Kanchipuram, Thiruvallur and Cuddalore districts where the weatherman has predicted more rains for the next 48 hours.

Rain-battered Cuddalore is likely to get heavy to very heavy showers, the meteorological department said, adding that Sunday’s showers were due to a twin weather system, including formation of a new trough of low pressure over the Bay of Bengal along the Tamil Nadu coast.

Chennai city, which has been experiencing intermittent rains, would continue to be cloudy and rain or thundershowers, at times heavy, are likely.

Power supply has been restored in several areas, while it continued to be disconnected in many where water has not receded as a measure of precaution.

Ravaged by heavy rains last week which crippled services, several private and public sector banks operated Monday. Several private and public sector banks functioned to clear the backlog caused by the rains which had paralysed ATM services. The state government has declared holidays for schools and colleges Monday. — PTI

“... Availability of Chennai airport for all weather day and night operations for all flights for which domestic and international terminals will be available from 6 am of December 7, 2015,” an Airport Authority of India statement said here late Sunday evening.

This followed an inspection by DGCA for night operations, an AAI spokesman said.

The airport was shut down last Tuesday night after heavy downpour flooded the runway and all other operating areas. Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathy Raju is likely to visit Chennai airport Monday to make an on-the-spot inspection.

Altogether five passenger flights, all of Air India, took off from or landed at Chennai Airport till 5 pm Sunday. An Oman Air plane stranded at the Chennai airport departed for Muscat with two crew. Four ferry flights also took off or landed at the airport, AAI sources said.

The Southern Railway has announced that 80 per cent trains, including long-distance, will be operational from tomorrow morning from both Chennai Central and Egmore terminals.

Anantharaman, a top Southern Railway official, told reporters that the railway bridge in Saidapet over Adyar had made a lateral shift and engineers and staff worked day and night to fix it.

At 1.45 pm Sunday, the clearance certificate was given after which Chennai Beach-Chenglepet services were resumed. In two or three days, 100 per cent normalcy will be restored from Chennai, he said.

The railways ran 70 special trains carrying 45,000 passengers to their destinations. In all, 560 trains were cancelled during the floods.

Meanwhile, airdropping of relief and aerial rescue efforts have been called off with overall improvement in the situation. “The water level in the city has gone down considerably after initial days of flooding, and since last evening all aerial rescue and relief operations have been called off. There are no further communications from either Tamil Nadu or the Centre to carry them out as the city is slowly returning to normalcy,” a top IAF official told

In coordinated efforts over the last few days, the Indian Air Force and National Disaster Response Force had airlifted close to 1,500 people and transported them to safety, including 400 stranded students.