Chennai: As Chennai was battered by over six hours of rain on Thursday, South Chennai was one of the worst affected areas with waist-deep water between the IT corridor and GST belt and several other areas including Chromepet, Tambaram, Pallikaranai, Mudichur and Madipakkam witnessed heavy waterlogging. Though officials were on their feet and pumped out water to clear the roads by Friday afternoon, the rains that made a comeback on Friday night once again brought the fear of flooding along with them.
Rainwater entered the Chromepet government hospital on Thursday night, forcing doctors on duty and paramedical staff to shift patients out of the wards. Sources at the hospital said the patients were shifted to the first floor of the hospital and sandbags at the height of three feet were put at the entrance of the hospital.
Water also entered inside the premises of Institute of Thoracic Medicine at Tambaram Sanatorium. “Though the inpatient ward is not affected, rainwater entered the outpatient block. So, it was shifted to another building inside the hospital. The drain remain affected as the National Highways department has blocked one of the roads, preventing rainwater from entering into the drains,” said Dr R. Ranjith, Institute of Thoracic Medicine.
Despite the presence of stormwater drain, streets and main roads connecting Madipakkam, Puzhuthivakkam, Ullagaram, Velachery, witnessed heavy water stagnation. In Madipakkam, houses located in Ram Nagar South 1st cross Street, LIC Nagar, Mahalakshmi Nagar, Kuberan Nagar, were flooded and roads leading to Narayanapuram, Kovilambakkam were completely blocked, since Thursday night. Residents of Pallikaranai rued about lack of desilting measures taken by the authorities in the marshland and canals located in the area.
Apart from this, Chitalapakkam also witnessed heavy waterlogging. “The water entered inside our house around 12 midnight and we had to sit on a stool and wait till the water recedes. Looks like nothing has changed since the December 2015 floods,” said K. Krishna, a resident of Chitalapakkam. Also, a lot of office-goers were stranded at the IT corridor and were forced to stay at the office for the night.
