Chennai: The north-east monsoon has hit the Coromandel coast and is causing heavy rainfall in nine Tamil Nadu districts for the past two days, triggering fear of a rerun of the December 2015 deluge in which 150 people had died.
All the educational institutions in these districts remained closed on Tuesday.
Local administration minister S.P. Velumani said Seerkazhi district received 31cm of rain in the past 24 hours, Chidambaram 23cm and Tambaram 20cm. "Last night alone, Chennai received 11cm," he said.
The Indian Meteorological Department has forecast rain for a minimum of four more days and the downpour could be "heavy to very heavy" in certain areas.
Balachandran, the director of the IMD centre in Chennai, said the "monsoon is vigorous" and had been "heavy" in 21 places and "very heavy" in 16 places in the past 24 hours.
The rain once again exposed the poor infrastructure in Chennai suburbs such as Mudichur, Varadarajpuram and Mahalakshmi Nagar with many people leaving their homes in search of safety.
Several residents alleged that despite "tall claims", officials had failed to initiate proper flood-prevention measures.
Many of the affected areas have waist-deep water. People in many places have been forced to wade through the water for at least 1km to reach the main roads. The administration has sent boats to several places to evacuate people.
Residents pointed out that many places in Chennai don't have storm-water drains to quickly flush out water during heavy downpour. The Greater Chennai Corporation said such drains were being built in the extension areas.
On Monday, traffic snarls were reported from across Chennai, including IT Corridor.
Water has entered several ground-floor homes in several areas, including Kilpauk and Koyambedu. A tree that fell in the Mambalam area blocked traffic for several hours close to the commercial hub of T Nagar.
More than 5,000 illegal structures blocking the waterways have been demolished Velumani said. "At least 95 per cent of the channels in Chennai and the contiguous districts have been desilted," he added.
He asserted that the situation could not be compared to that of 2015. "Now we are fully prepared to meet any issue," Velumani said.
The commissioner of revenue administration, K. Sathyagopal, said 18,000 personnel and 458 suction pumps had been kept ready, Around 176 disaster relief camps have been set up.
In Chennai, corporation commissioner D. Karthikeyan said 300 chronic water-stagnation points had been identified and 400 suction pumps were ready.
More than 20 fire services personnel at Nagappattinam escaped without harm when a portion of their office building, said to have been constructed in 1948, caved in.
