CHENNAI: The city corporation is in the process of clearing water logging from 134 locations in the city after rains brought on by cyclone Fengal. It has so far cleared 8 locations and is in the process of dewatering the other places, the city corporation said.
There have also been nine tree falls so far, the civic body said. The corporation has opened up relief centres in 329 places which have been equipped with food and drinking water.
The corporation has set up its pumps to dewater low-lying areas and is expected to coordinate relief wherever needed with the help of volunteers. So far, 18500 volunteers have registered with the corporation to coordinate rescue and relief and they are on stand by, the civic body said.
In the monsoon season, from October 15 to November 30, the civic body’s toll-free 1913 helpline has received 47,873 complaints of which 39, 619 complaints have been attended to, according to a release.
Meanwhile, the Greater Chennai Traffic Police said that as of 10 am, six subways in the city were closed due to water logging on account of heavy rains. These were Gengu Reddy, Rangarajapuram, Palavanthangal, RBI, Ajax Subway, Perambur and Sundaram point subways.
Similarly, the Duraisamy subway and Madley subway have been closed for light vehicles. The remaining 14 subways were motorable without any water logging, GCTP said.
They also announced the closure of Alagappa road and that vehicles are diverted through Purasalwalkam high road via Dr Nair road point to reach the EVR Salai (Poonamalee High Road) in the north-west part of the city.
From holy family school to shell petrol bunk, a one-way route was being used for vehicles in both directions, the GCTP said.
There's a tree fall in Arya Gowda road and Besant Nagar, the agency said.
Fengal is expected to make landfall later today between North Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts, with wind speed upto 90 kmph.
The cyclone's main rain bands have brought rain to the city from around 3:30 am on Saturday and has persisted since then in varying intensities.