Tamil Nadu: Coastal districts bear brunt of the monsoon
Thamaraipakkam and Grant Anaicut, the other catchment areas of Chennai metro water also received rains.
Chennai: Coastal districts of Tamil Nadu received heavy rains and rivers in Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari overflowed their banks on Thursday. Western districts and reserve forests in TN also received good showers increasing the inflow of water into TN dams after a period of two weeks.
Pechiparai, Perunchani, Courtrallam, Papanaasam and Manimutharu rivers started overflowing and the district administrations in Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli sounded flood alerts for local villagers. As a safety measure, waterfalls in southern districts were also closed for tourists. Train services between Nagarcoil, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari were also cancelled on Thursday.
However, there was not much inflow of fresh water into the Chennai reservoirs till Thursday. Poondi and Cholavaram received no inflow of water, but the intermittent rains in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram brought an inflow of 423 cusecs to Chembarambakkam and 153 cusecs to Red Hills reservoir.
Thamaraipakkam and Grant Anaicut, the other catchment areas of Chennai metro water also received rains. The total combined storage capacity of city reservoirs stood at 4.7 TMC against the total capacity of 11 TMC.
Meanwhile Local administration minister S. P Velumani conducted a monsoon review meeting with Chennai corporation, revenue and metro water officials at state secretariat on Thursday.
The minister instructed the government departments to engage heavy machinery and earth movers to remove debris and water hyacinth that block the flow of storm water.
In a press release, minister said that 16,000 tonnes of water hyacinth has been removed and 287 heavy machines like earth movers, crane, Bobcat vehicles and tipper lorries were used to speed up the flood relief works. So far, 5,383 encroachments have been cleared to facilitate free flowing of water, he said.
Earlier in the day Southern railway announced cancellation of trains due to cyclonic wind and heavy rains. In a press release, southern railway said that Punalur –Kanniyakumari passenger train, Kollam – Chennai Egmore Anantapuri express, Trichy – Thiruvanathapuram – Trichy intercity express were partially cancelled. Service of Chennai Egmore – Kollam Anantapuri express that commenced journey on Wednesday also stands cancelled between Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam, the release said.