Chennai, Nov. 17: You can make hay even while the sun is not shining - by keeping track of jokes on WhatsApp and lending a helping hand.

Ola is doing so - lending a helping hand - in flooded Chennai by offering boats but would not agree with uncharitable descriptions such as "making hay".

On Monday a joke circulating on WhatsApp showed a photoshopped screenshot of the Ola app offering boat service in flood-hit Chennai.

Today the country's largest taxi aggregator deployed more than a dozen boats in the city. The only hitch is they cannot be accessed through the Ola app, since it is a voluntary service.

"The free boat service is available in five areas that we have found to be heavily waterlogged. While we ramped up our cab service today we heard about people stranded in flooded colonies and decided to reach out to them and provide this service," explained Anand Subramaniam, spokesperson of Ola.

He said the service was offered because the official machinery was stretched and underlined that it was purely voluntary.

Asked why Ola stickers were displayed on the boats if the aim was not to get mileage, Anand replied: "We wanted our customers to know that we did not desert them in their hour of need."

He continued: "Ola is about mobility and even when no roads were there, we offered this voluntary service. No question of gaining any publicity. We wanted our customers to have some form of mobility."

The fibreglass boats, which can ferry five to nine people each, were sent out on the basis of inputs provided by the state's fire and rescue department.

The ferry was available in the flooded neighbourhoods of Velachery, Thorapiakkam, Perumbakkam, Madipakkam and Saidapet.

The boats were stocked with basic food supplies and packaged water to be delivered to residents who do not want to leave their homes but are in need of these essentials. They also carried umbrellas for passengers. Sourced from Chennai Sport Fishing Company, the boats were manned by professional rowers and fishermen.

The army used boats and the air force flew helicopters to rescue people from waterlogged suburbs and the new residential colonies of nearby districts. The choppers dropped food packets and water bottles to rooftops of multi-storey buildings marooned after lakes breached or overflowed following Sunday's torrential downpour.

Neighbouring Kancheepuram, where auto-manufacturing companies like Nissan, Yamaha and Benz have set up facilities, felt the brunt as a dozen lakes in the district overflowed and marooned residential colonies that have come up recently.

"Our production has been hit not just by flooding but also by low attendance as most of our workers failed to show up," said a spokesperson for Bharat Benz.

Kancheepuram district collector R. Gajalakshmi said more than 60,000 people were estimated to be stranded in their homes.

"Many of them want to remain at their homes and need essential supplies. So while evacuating those who want to move out from single- or double-storey buildings, those in multi-storey apartments are being provided with food, milk and water. We explain to them that it might take another three days to restore power but these residents want to stay put," the collector said.

A senior government officer said it might take at least a week for the rainwater to recede, if there is no fresh rainfall, but the slush would take months to clean up.

The Jayalalithaa government put up a brave face amid widespread criticism of botching up, deploying two ministers to do the explaining before the media even as Chennai's much-maligned mayor Saidai Duraiswamy sat glumly.

Correction: Tuesday's report in The Telegraph described the rain as the "monsoon" in some places and the "northeast monsoon" elsewhere. The northeast monsoon is the correct term. We apologise for the mistake.