The flooded Chennai IT corridor on Wednesday.
It hasn't rained in Chennai since yesterday but its Velacherry -- Tambaram highway is flooded. Commuters on this IT corridor - the road gets the name because it has IT offices on both sides - travel through knee-deep waters.
Officials say a lake near Palikaranai has reached its capacity following Monday's heavy rain and the surplus gushes across the four lane stretch near the Balaji Dental College.
Ravichandran, an IT professional, was caught unawares. "I had a meeting scheduled at 10 am but I have been stuck here for over an hour," he said, stuck on his scooter in the rain.
Chennai has already received more than the entire three month season's rains in a month. Dr Ramanan, Director, Regional MET Centre, said "Chennai's average rainfall during north east monsoon (from October to December) is 79cm but in the last one month, the city has received over 101cm rain."
The areas where the IT Corridor has come up were lakes till a few decades ago. Though construction on water bodies is largely illegal, environmentalists say successive state governments turned a blind eye towards it and even regularised the structures. "Most marshlands have now become concrete jungles and we don't have space for these waters to go (out)," says Nisha Thota, an environmentalist.
These areas lack scientifically designed storm water drains. With several low lying areas outside Chennai remaining flooded, there's a fear now of water borne diseases. Latha, a local resident at Varadarajapuram, whose house is flooded with sewage mixed water says, "We are worried about diseases spreading."
Government doctors are now panning out distributing medicines and examining residents facing health issues.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had recently spoken about sending ministers and senior bureaucrats to all rain affected districts. But, that is not enough, many say. A former bureaucrat, who did not want to be named, says "She has failed to ensure Chennai and other parts of the state are geared up for rains. No proper desilting of lakes and channels was done to hold more water...she can't pass the buck saying I've deployed bureaucrats".