Cauvery delta may get rains from cyclone Madi

Chennai: Cauvery delta region is expected to get a good amount of rainfall on Friday, as the cyclone Madi, which earlier weakened into a well-marked low pressure, has now gained mo­mentum and turned into a depression. The system was laying 100 km east of Nagapattinam on Thursday evening and is expected to make landfall by Thursday night or Friday morning.

“The system will in all possibility dissipate over land,” said Dr Y.E.A. Raj, deputy director general of meteorology, Regional Meteor­olo­gical Centre (RMC), Chennai.

Acco­rding to him, the Cauvery delta region would receive good rains, while Chennai might also get some rainfall.

The unique cyclone that made an inverted ‘V’ would have ended its seven-day of arduous journey by the time this newspaper rea­ches your hand.

It would be welcome rains for the Cauvery delta region comprising of Cuddalore (-33 per cent), Naga­pat­tinam (-26 per cent), Perambalur (-27), Pudukottai (-48), Thanjavur (-40), Tiruvarur (-42) and Tiruchy (-35), as these districts have also been reeling under deficit rainfall this northeast monsoon season. On Thursday, the city received isolated showers while coastal districts received heavy rainfall in certain areas.

Weather blogger R. Pradeep John said that the system gathered water vapour only after passing the Bay of Bengal downwards of Chennai and so the city received only 0.3 cm rainfall, but experienced heavy winds on Thursday.

“However, it rained heavily near coastal districts with automatic rain gauges in Cheyyur reco­rding 10 cm rain and Hindustan Un­i­versity showing 1 cm rainfall,” he added.

In all, the state continues to reel under 32 per cent deficit mean rainfall at 27.4 cm compared to normal of 40.5 cm for the season starting October 1 till December 12.

Chennai district too is in the deficient bracket recording only 45.6 cm rains compared to the normal of 72 cm for the season with reservoirs running dry and only Veeranam offering relief.

Next: Passengers suffer bumpy ride on slippery runway during rains

Passengers suffer bumpy ride on slippery runway during rains

Chennai: While pilots have to be extra careful while landing on a rainy day in Chennai airport, pa­­­ssengers continue to endure bumpy rides on the patch-worked taxi track, as the res­u­r­facing of the ma­in runway has not ma­terialised yet.

Further, the city airport can cater to only 26 movements per ho­ur, while Mumbai airport that has a similar runway structure is able to record 40 movements per hour.

The good news now is that the notice to ai­r­men (NOTAM) iss­u­ed on a slippery surface on the runway ne­ar the Pallavaram-end has been withdrawn fr­om December 9 (Mo­nday).

According to a senior Chennai airport official, a friction co-efficient test was conducted on Nove­mber 30, and the res­ults were found out to be alright. The test re­v­ealed co-efficient of fri­ction as 0.56 at 3 me­tres and 0.55 at 6 me­tres on the main runway.

Officials say that it will be difficult to re­pair the main runway and taxi track without re-commissioning the secondary runway, for which the approval is still pending with DGCA.

“We are taking care of necessary re­pair and patch works on the main runway and taxi track. But we cannot keep the main runway closed for a lo­nger period of time,” said Chennai airport AGM (PR) Harbhajan Singh.

He added that the Ai­rports Authority of In­dia (AAI) is very cl­o­se to re-opening the se­c­ondary runway that extends over Ad­yar river.

“Anna Univ­ersity gave a positive report on the quality of concrete and ascertained the safety of the bridge after undertaking a study in Au­gust-September this year. But the Director General of Civil Avi­ation has raised a few more queries and we have sent it to the university to get ans­w­ers,” he added.

Another airport official added that the nu­mber of aircraft mo­­­v­ements would inc­re­ase once the seconda­ry runway gets operational in the city airport.

“Due to lack of an alternate runway and no rapid exit taxi tra­ck in operation as of now, ai­r­craft are fo­r­c­ed to take a steep cu­rve and this natura­lly reduces sp­eed, th­e­r­e­by incr­ea­sing the time spent on runway,” the official pointed out.