Chennai, Dec. 6: Tamil Nadu’s infotech corridor is a huge lake.

After Cyclone Baaz battered the southern metropolis and neighbouring districts with heavy rain, IT professionals have been struggling to reach their workplaces south of the city, wading through severely waterlogged and pot-holed streets the past week.

Now with Microsoft chief Bill Gates expected in the city on Thursday, the state government’s attention has turned to keeping the surrounding infrastructure along the IT corridor accessible and workable. Several big IT names, like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam and Cognizant, have offices in the area.

Apart from the overflowing tanks and lakes in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, the two rivers snaking through Chennai ? Adayar and Cooum ? also breached their mark, flooding many suburbs.

The areas close to the IT corridor, along the route to the tourist centre of Mamallapuram, face another problem ? that of a construction boom in a wetland area.

The southern suburbs of Vellacherry and Pallikaranai, which are close to the IT corridor, are wetlands where sprawling residential complexes have come up, riding on the IT boom. The area was once a huge natural drainage system for surplus surface water.

Compounding the area’s drainage problems is the construction of the Mass Rapid Transit System’s elevated railway line near the Buckingham canal ? the only channel to drain out surplus water from the area close to the IT corridor.

The line crosses the canal at key points. With pillars being built for the transit system, the canal is unable to drain out water when precipitation is very high.