Heavy rains claim at least 100 lives in Tamil Nadu, normal life disrupted

A number of companies have announced a holiday for employees, while schools and colleges in Chennai are closed

Heavy rains across Tamil Nadu are estimated to have killed at least 100 people, as of Sunday, as most parts of the state remained inundated, including Chennai. 

On Monday, trains were running late, with many diverted to stations other than Chennai. Main roads and subways in the state capital are still waterlogged, snarling traffic across the city. 

Many IT companies including Cognizant, Wipro and Tech Mahindra are closed; city officials have announced a holiday for all educational institutions in Chennai. A number of examinations have also been rescheduled. 

Auto majors in and and around the city have decided to stop production. They include Daimler, Ford, BMW, Royal Enfield, Renault-Nissan, Ashok Leyland.

All these companies have said that production was stopped due to rain. In a few factories as the water is stagnated they could not function and a few of the companies said their employees could not reach the plant.

While Ford and BMW factories are located on the GST Road, Daimler, Renault-Nissan factories are located at Oragadam, the auto hub of Chennai. The Yamaha factory was also not working, but the company attributed it to extended festival holiday.

Meanwhile Korean car maker Hyundai is running the factory, which is located at Sriperumbudur, around 45 kms from Chennai. Similarly, the Apollo Tyres plant at Oragadam was also functioning. Tamil Nadu accounts for nearly 21% of the country's installed vehicle production. The industry employees around 1.20 lakh people (directly and indirectly).

The prices of vegetables have also gone up following the rains and thunderstorms. While tomato prices touched Rs 70 a kg, up from Rs 28 a week ago, onion prices have touched Rs 100 per kg from Rs 30-40.

While rain has been predicted to be strong for next three days, reports say the low pressure formation is now moving northwards towards Andhra Pradesh, which is expected to reduce the intensity in Tamil Nadu.

According to Skymetweather, a website providing weather updates in the country, the city has recorded 268 mm rain in 21 hours.

According to the India Meteorological Department, Chennai, issued on Sunday night, widespread heavy to very heavy rain with isolated extremely heavy rain fall is expected in northern part of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Isolated and heavy to very heavy rain has been forecast for the rest of the state. 

Strong squalls reaching 40-50 kmph, occasionally gusting to 60 kmph, is likely to prevail over north Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and Nellore district of south coastal Andhra Pradesh during the next 48 hours, said the forecast released at 8.30 pm Sunday evening. It also forecast that isolated heavy to very heavy rain would continue in the region on Tuesday also.

Standing crops in many parts of the state were destroyed due to rain.

In Sirkazhi area, sugarcane crops grown in over 350 acres have been affected while Kuruvai (short-term paddy) crops ready for harvest were inundated at Vedaranyam.

More than 10,000 fishermen did not venture into the sea for the fourth consecutive day due to the rough conditions.

Cognizant has declared a holiday for its offices in Chennai on Monday for employees working on general shift. This is not applicable to those employees working in critical client deliverable as well as 24X7 support, said a source.