Chennai Floods: Domestic passenger flights to resume ops from Chennai airport today; city limps back to normalcy
50 NDRF teams deployed in Tamil Nadu.
The torrential rains slowed down considerably in Chennai on Saturday, leaving a window open for rescue and relief works to be stepped up.
OP Singh DG, NDRF said this was the most massive deployment in any flood situation and that they had deployed 50 teams in Tamil Nadu. "We have helped more than 16,000 people reach safety in different parts of the state," he said. He added that extensive use of social media helped them a lot this time. "We have given out and received real time information which helped us a lot," he said. Emphasizing on the large scale of the relief work, he added that the operation consisted of more than 1500 jawans and over 200 inflatable boats are still at work rescuing people.
However, thousands of citizens continue to be marooned with several areas inundated and many people have been stuck in their homes without any food, water or electricity.
Kotturpuram: NDRF team undertakes rescue operation in flood affected area (4.12.15) #ChennaiFloods pic.twitter.com/nGQgFGkEmL
— ANI (@ANI_news) December 5, 2015
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said that it would take a couple of days for Chennai airport to begin functioning. "Commercial flight services cannot start at Chennai airport as of now, we should give it 2 days," he said. He added that once the power supply is restored in the city commercial flight services would be restarted.
dna's Latha Srinivasan in Chennai says that power and phone networks are still down in many areas, even as people continue to search for missing family members. The city has rallied together in the difficult time and many volunteers have been aiding rescue efforts, she added. "A bus of volunteers and items with blankets and other essentials will be leaving hotel Savera at 9 am to Mudichur. In addition, there have been requests for 5,000 sanitary napkins needed in Maduravoyal," she said.
Meanwhile, Arakonnam naval base, located 70 kms south of Chennai, and the Tambaram Air Base, nearly 30 kms outside the capital city, have become the two nerve centres on the rescue operations map. Over 600 rescued people were ferried on Friday from the base named 'INS Rajali'.
Support has also been pouring in across the country to Chennai as relief funds, supplies and amenities are making their way to the rain-hit state. Several social media accounts like chennairains.org, @ChennaiRainsOrg, @AidOffered have been co-ordinating rescue and aid operations by volunteers across the city. Twitter hastags such as #chennairain, #ChennaiFloods, #chennairainshelp, #chennaimicro are being used for spreading information about relief work and using it to send and ask for help.
People on social media can also volunteer or ask for help by filling these form. A map on where food, accommodation, rescue etc is available in the city can be found here.
A list of Corporation of Chennai relief centres can be found here
Also Read: Airlines flight rates skyrocket due to Chennai floods
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50 NDRF teams deployed in Tamil Nadu.
Domestic passenger flights to resume operations from Chennai airport from 6.00 am tomorrow: JP Alex, AAI Executive Director. The decision on night operations will be taken tomorrow
PM announces ex-gratia relief from PMNRF of Rs 2 lakhs each for next of kin of those who lost their lives in floods due to heavy rains in TN. An ex-gratia relief of Rs 50,000 has also been sanctioned from PMNRF for those who were seriously injured in the floods.
For Central Excise & Service Tax assessees in Tamil Nadu, date for payment of Excise duty and Service Tax for Nov.2015 is extended to Dec.20,2015.
Nearly 400 people, including university students, were taken to safety today by a team of defence and NDRF personnel as operations continued in full swing to rescue and distribute relief to those stranded in the aftermath of the torrential rains in Chennai.
HDFC Bank has deployed POS terminals across the city.People can just swipe their debit or credit cards on the POS and get cash. The cash cap stands at Rs 5,000 per customer
ATMs down, banks shut; people have little cash, rely on generous shopkeepers. (Full story on the situation Chennaites are dealing with here)
AIADMK has refuted the charges that volunteers were forced to add Jayalalithaa stickers on relief supplies. The party said that people have been paid to do such things to defame Jayalalithaa government, reports The Hindu. They said that they have caught people have been playing the 'mischief' to descredit the state government. But it also said that it will take action against partymen harassing volunteers and hindering relief operations.
It has asked volunteers to call and register complaint on these numbers: 044-28130787, 044-28132266, 044-28133510
The complaints can also be sent to the party Twitter handle @aiadmkofficial or can mailed to info@aiadmk.com.
Relief materials allegedly being allowed only after carrying Jayalalithaa stickers (More about the story here)
ICICI Bank to waiver penalty for late EMI, credit card payments for Chennaites (More details here)
Rajender Kataria, MD of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has said that the Maharashtra state government had requested them to evacuate 150 students stuck in IIT Chennai. "We have arranged three buses for them. Now they are on their way to Bengaluru," he added.
Kataria said that they have started free bus services between Chennai and Bengaluru that run every 8 hours. Normally, 40 buses operate on this route, which was affected due to the Chennai floods, he told ANI. But now since there is a lot of demand, we have increased the bus services between Chennai and Bengaluru to 55 for relief and rescue operations.
The state-run AAVIN has said milk supply would reach full capacity by tomorrow in Chennai. Lakhs of people dependent on AAVIN were forced to pay exorbitant rates to get milk from various sources as there was shortage of the commodity over the past few days.
Free bus services within Chennai till December 8, announces Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai)
Anil Saxena, Railway PRO, has said that water has started receding from railway tracks in many places, but the situation is not fully normal.
"We are running a lot of special trains. Yesterday we ran 22 special trains whereas today we have planned 10 specials," he said. However, around 131 trains have been cancelled today. "From Day 1 to today, there have been around 500 cancellations," Saxena added. Read more here
Though water has begun to recede from many submerged areas, many more still remain flooded, necessitating the rescue teams to continue to work on a war footing.
Local volunteers said areas like Alwarpet, Adyar and Mount road had cleared up, while the situation at areas like Besant Nagar and Gopalapuram was fine. However, interior regions still remained waterlogged.
Satish Soni, Vice Admiral, Navy said he met the chief secretary and public secretary of Tamil Nadu to discuss the flood situation. "Arakkonam is operating as an aircraft coordination airfield and over 100 flights in and out of Arakkonam have already taken place," he said. "Our helicopters are doing aerial surveys constantly, the helpline number is 25394240," he added. He also said that INS Shakti is loaded with relief material and 700 tonnes of drinking water for displaced people.
In its forecast for the next 24 hours, the MeT department has said that rain is likely at many places in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. As far as Chennai city is concerned, it will be cloudy with few spells of rain, they added. One or two places in coastal districts in south India may also receive heavy rainfall, they said.
Shortage of fuel supply in Chennai city and its neighbourhood remains a problem as oil companies suffered from the non-availability of trucks. The state government had said that steps have been taken to mobilise more trucks.
Heavy rains also pounded Puducherry overnight. Official sources said Puducherry and its suburbs recorded 9.1 cm rainfall in the last 24 hours ending 8.30 a.m.today. Total rainfall recorded in Puducherry since the beginning of this week has crossed 60 cms.
Rainfall resumes at Tambaram.
Commercial flight services likely to begin after December 6, says Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma. Read more
Cricketers R Ashwin, Murali Vijay offer support to Chennai flood victims, promise help.
Their own families caught in the devastating Chennai floods, Indian cricket team members R Ashwin and Murali Vijay said they have been pained by the loss of life in the disaster and will try to help the affected after the series against South Africa. Read more