Chennai rains: T Nagar, Velachery and other areas face waterlogging

Heavy intermittent rainfall since Tuesday night, October 20, has caused waterlogging in several Chennai neighbourhoods, including T Nagar, Velachery, Nungambakkam, Ashok Nagar, and West Mambalam. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has deployed motor pumps, tractors, and other machinery to remove stagnant rainwater. Civic workers have also been working on clearing blockages in drains and directing the water into the stormwater drain network. In T Nagar, rainwater accumulated on several major roads, including Panagal Park Road and Habibullah Road, as well as streets adjoining Thirumalai Road.Panagal Park Road, an important stretch connecting Anna Salai to T Nagar, was severely waterlogged. Two-wheelers, buses, autorickshaws, and cars struggled to navigate the road, with water reaching halfway up some vehicles. Traffic along this stretch has also been affected by ongoing Metro Rail construction on one side and stormwater drain works on the other. Bazullah Road and streets adjoining Thirumalai Road were also affected. Waterlogging was reported on GN Chetty Road too, where infrastructure works had been undertaken under the Smart City project. Water resources Minister and T Nagar MLA Anand said precautionary measures have been put in place under Chief Minister Vijay's instructions and that preparations had been underway for a month.“Previously, rainwater would remain stagnant for two or three days. Now, we are using motor pumps to remove the accumulated water within three to four hours,” he told the media.The Minister also said the government was planning to distribute breakfast to 2,000 people on Wednesday morning and had made arrangements to serve approximately 5,000 people at lunchtime.Heavy rainfall has been reported across several parts of Tamil Nadu since the onset of the Northeast Monsoon. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast the possibility of heavy rainfall in the state for the next two days.In Velachery, heavy overnight rain inundated AGS Colony, where approximately 25 houses were affected.Minister for Information Technology and Velachery MLA Kumar visited the locality and heard residents' grievances. Explaining why the area repeatedly experiences flooding, Minister Kumar said AGS Colony, along with Ram Nagar and Damodhar Nagar, lies in a low-lying part of Velachery. “Many houses here were built 30 or 40 years ago in these low-lying areas. So, whenever heavy rain occurs, water accumulates here," he told the media.He said coordinated efforts by the GCC and ruling party workers had helped bring down the water level. “It will take another three to four hours for the water to drain completely,” Kumar said, adding that additional pumps had already been deployed.When asked about permanent solutions to prevent waterlogging, Kumar said the government was consulting experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to examine the problem and identify possible measures.Waterlogging was also reported in Alwarpet, Kilpauk, Kolathur in North Chennai, Ashok Nagar and West Mambalam.Vadapalani received 13.5 cm of rain, followed by Saidapet with 12.7 cm, Meenambakkam with 12 cm, Valasaravakkam with 11.3 cm, Nerkundram with 11 cm, Nungambakkam with 10.7 cm, Adyar with 10 cm, and Taramani with 9.5 cm.According to reports, GCC has deployed more than 100 motor pumps, along with tractors, high-capacity pumps and JCB vehicles, to remove waterlogging across the 15 zones of the city.