Chennai: The flood-ravaged Chennai is slowly limping back to normalcy on Sunday with partial restoration of flight services, electricity, telecommunication, train connectivity and availability of essential items in many parts of Tamil Nadu.
Electricity has been restored in several parts of the city including areas like Velachery, Madipakkam and Adyar which were severely inundated. Several subways including Duraisamy, Nanganallur Thillai Ganga Nagar, St. Thomas Mount have reopened bringing much relief to the commuters. Regular train services from Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore have also resumed.
But Chennaiites can't heave a sigh of relief just yet as the MeT department has predicted heavy rains in certain parts of the city till Monday.
The focus is now on the relief operations as the Army, Navy and NDRF have deployed teams across the city bringing food, water and medical supplies to those affected. The government is yet to rehabilitate thousands who are housed in relief camps. Many areas of the city near the Adyar river remain inundated as locals fear the spread of water borne diseases.
In a major relief, Air Indian and Jet Airways have decided to resume partial flight services from Chennai Airport on Sunday morning. Air India to begin its services from 10 am to 4 pm and Jet Airways too have decided to start its flight services from Bengaluru to Chennai. As far as night operations are concerned decision will be taken on Monday.
The Air India chartered flight AI-549 is scheduled to take off at 10 AM while the airlines' flight AI 429 is scheduled for arrival at Chennai Airport at 1:40 PM, officials said. The same flight AI 430 (AI 429 on return) will depart for New Delhi at 2:45 PM, they added.
The airport had been shut since Tuesday after the runaway got flooded and power lines collapsed.
On Saturday the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary, Pradeep Kumar Sinha had a review meeting on flood situation in Tamil Nadu. The Cabinet Secretary took a detailed review of the flood situation including the rescue and relief measures undertaken by Tamil Nadu government and assistance provided by central government.
"Chennai did not experience heavy rainfall since Friday and the flood waters are receding. NDRF, and Armed forces sent by Government of India have rescued more than 28000 persons. As the need for rescue has come down, the 50 NDRF teams and 13 army columns deployed are now more pressed into relief services rather than rescue. Road connectivity has been restored. City bus service is functioning. Power supply has been restored to more than 90% of the city. Railways continue to operate special intra-city and outstation services. Normal service is expected to begin from Monday. Restoration of Chennai airport is on the way and will be completed in a day or two. Meanwhile the operation of the civilian flights from the Naval Air Base in Arakonam is continued," a statement issued by MHA reads.
On Saturday, nearly 400 people, including university students, were taken to safety by a team of defence and NDRF personnel as operations continued in full swing to rescue and distribute relief to those stranded in the aftermath of the torrential rains in Chennai.
Defence aircraft as also a couple of civilian ones ferried people to Delhi and Hyderabad since Saturday morning even as Indian Air Force flew sorties to bring more people to the Arakonnam Naval Base that has played a critical role in the overall operations.
"A C-17 Globemaster carrying 172 people left at around 11:30 AM for Delhi. A TrueJet flight also took off carrying 70 people, who were flown to Hyderabad.
'INS Rajali', the naval base here and the Tambaram Air Base, about 30km outside of Chennai, have been working in tandem over the past several days to bring people to safety.
Over 600 people, including stranded civilians and defence personnel, were on Friday flown out from the naval base. "We sent about 300 people from the Tambaram Base to Arakonnam Base throughout the day. No more sorties are planned as yet," Flight Lieutenant Mohanan Chandrika at Tamabaram Base had said.
(With additional information from PTI)
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