Fire Service personnel rescue a family at a flood-hit area in Vyasarpadi, Chennai, on Friday. Photo: V. Ganesan
Life for people in Chennai continues to be difficult though rains have stopped in the city. Many areas in Chennai still remain under water and supply of essentials is difficult, say residents.
“Waterlogging continues to be there. The only mercy was that there were no rains,” said Viswanath, a resident.
The water flow in the Adyar river has come down and the amount of surplus water was released into the river from the Chembarambakkam lake.
The Southern Railways have announced special trains to Tirunelveli, Rameswaram and Howrah from Chennai Beach station. The power supply was restored in the areas where water has receded, but it was still cut in many other places.
Mobile phone services, which had taken a severe beating following the heavy downpour on Tuesday, were partially restored even as other services such as ATMs continued to remain shut.
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SCR running special trains
The South Central Railway (SCR) is running special trains from Hyderabad and Kakinada Port to Chennai for the benefit of passengers stranded in the rain-ravaged Tamil Nadu capital.
Train No 07644 left Kakinada Port at 9 p.m. on Friday and will arrive in Chennai Beach at 9:50 a.m. on Saturday.
Another train (No. 02760) departed from Hyderabad at 9 p.m. on Friday and will arrive at Chennai Beach at 12.15 p.m. on Saturday, a SCR release said.
Meanwhile, the SCR on Friday cancelled half a dozen trains (Up and Down directions) due to submergence of Railway bridges on the Chennai-Gudur section.
These trains are: Tirupati-Chennai Central Saptagiri Express, Tirupati-Chennai Central Express and Vijayawada-Chennai Central Janshatabdi Express (all three in both directions), the release said.
Private carriers join rescue effort
Private airlines have joined the rescue operations in rain-battered Chennai, with some of the carriers flying out hundreds of people from the Arakkonam Naval Base to Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
“Some of the private airlines have started running a few relief flights from here to Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. One such flight flew about 130 rescued civilians to Delhi this afternoon,” a defence official said in Arakkonam.
“While two flights flew in the morning to Hyderabad and Bangalore routes, one came in the afternoon and another at night,” he added.
The Delhi-bound IndiGo flight (No 8002) landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at its domestic terminal early Friday night.
Arakkonam Naval Base or INS Rajali is about 70 km west of Chennai, and is currently being used as a makeshift airport due to closure of the Chennai Airport. — PTI
600 airlifted from Arakkonam
Over 600 people including more than 130 university students and an old French couple were taken to safety from Arakonam Naval Base, about 70 km from Chennai, by a coordinated team of defence and NDRF personnel.
Clear weather provided opportunity to the Air Force team to carry our ample number of sorties for relief and rescue operations.
The rescued included both stranded civilians and defence personnel many of whom themselves were unable to move around in the wake of the torrential rains that has pounded the city lately.
“Around 150 people, 130 among them being civilians and rest from the defence forces were rescued and sent in a private airliner which operated two rescue flights from our base. While the first took off in the afternoon for Delhi, the other one carrying 180 people left at night.- PTI
MTC rides free
Considering the number of displaced people in Chennai, the government has announced that passengers can travel in the Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses free of cost for four days beginning Saturday (December 5, 2015).
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