Chennai: Waterlogging, traffic snarls and power cuts returned to north Chennai on Monday.
Intermittent rains that started on Sunday night continued affecting normal life in low-lying areas of Chennai and vehicles were forced to ply at snail pace.
Peak hour traffic near Chennai Central and Egmore went haywire as vehicles piled up to more than a kilometre near Chennai central choking the arterial Poonamallee high road. Anna Salai also saw traffic piling up near Nandanam signal forcing motorists to spend 10 to 15 minutes to cross the arterial junction.
“Metro rail construction has made life miserable for rail passengers who arrive at Chennai central to board long distance trains and the bottle necks became worse when water fails to recede,” said a police personnel clearing the traffic near Park railway station.
Sunday night also had heavy traffic pile up near Ripon Buildings. Both state highways and metro rail blame each other for poor roads and the public are suffering, he added.
“Apart from waterlogging, traffic snarls are a major problem that affects north Chennai. It took me one hour 15 minutes to reach Ritchie street in Chindatripet from my residence at Washermenpet and this is 45 minutes extra from the usual time and hardly there is any help coming from authorities to decongest roads,” said K. Dhanasekhar, who is into mobile services.
Power cuts also returned to a few pockets of Vysarpadi and Choolai. Power was restored shortly after residents complained. For safety reasons the city corporation also switched off its streetlights lights in low lying areas after minor water logging were noticed in Pulianthope, Peram bur and Choolai.
Chennai metro water also urged the public to protect their water sumps from water pollution. “There were complaints that rain water has entered into residential buildings. If storm water is collected in underground sump due to inundation, the residents should refrain from using the sump water. The available water in the underground sump should be pumped out and the sump should be emptied. Then the underground sump shall be cleaned using bleaching powder for storing fresh water,” said a press statement from Chennai metro water board.
Delay in train services after signal failure
The suburban rail network in the city was crippled after heavy rains on Sunday night. The trains were delayed from two to eight hours after the track circuit-based signalling system failed.
“The incessant rains that led to water logging affected the signalling on Sunday at Tambaram from 9:10 to 10:45 pm and between Kodambakkam and St Thomas Mount from 9:30 pm till 3:30 in the morning,” said a Southern railways official.
The tracks at Perungalathur, Tambaram, Nungambakkam, Kodambakkam, Pallavaram, Chromepet, Korukkupet and St. Thomas Mount were under water after the rains, thereby delaying all the trains from Chengelpet to Chennai beach.
However, low patronage in the weekend reduced the number of sufferers and train services in all sectors were brought back to normal on Monday morning. Till then, the train services were maintained in the affected sections using manual signals.
