Chennai Rains LIVE Updates: Police receive over 325 rain-related distress calls in 24 hours

Pattalam and interior parts of Pulianthope, which are low-lying, and stretches at Arcot Road where metro work was going, would have been worse off if the civic body had not stationed highpowered pumps at several pointsdays in advance. When water stagnated for the second day at Stephenson Road and Perambur Main Road, due to swelling of Thanikachalam canal and parts of Otteri Nullah, the corporation used pumps to shift water through Cooks Road and New Farrance Road, to other parts of Otteri Nullah.

Over the last two months, the corporation removed 4,550 tonnes of silt from 33 canals. It also desilted older storm water drains. As a result, flood waters flowed faster into the city’s riversand out to sea. The encroached and clogged Mambalam canal used to be one of the reasons T Nagar and West Mambalam flooded every monsoon. Over the last year, the civic body removed 251 permanent encroachments at Todd Hunter Nagar, located on the canal. It had also cleaned beneath the culverts at 10 locations spanning five km. Most of T Nagar didn’t see flooding. Interior streets of West Mambalam did go under, but many of these areas do not have storm water drains yet.

The Greater Chennai Traffic Police (GCTP) closed traffic in two subways in the city, Rangarajapuram in T Nagar and Ganesapuram subway near Perambur, as they were waterlogged caused by heavy rains on Wednesday. READ MORE

The incessant rains on Tuesday left the personnel at Avadi police station in a lurch as they had to tiptoe through ankle deep water and attend to complainants. READ MORE

State public works department authorities have started increasing the discharge of water from the two major reservoirs that supply water to the city. From Red Hills reservoir, they released 292 cubic feet of water per second (cusecs) and from Chembarambakkam, 240 cusecs of water on Wednesday. A senior PWD official said the water release was part of the monsoon precautionary measures.