Chennai floods: Centre providing all assistance to TN Govt, says Naidu

In the flood-hit northern part of Tamil Nadu, situation has improved slightly with the scale of rain coming down since yesterday

Union Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said the Centre is providing all assistance to the Tamil Nadu Government, which is confronting its worst crisis after record rains in Chennai.

"The situation is Chennai is still serious. The Centre is in touch with the state government. I have talked to the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister on this matter. The Home Secretary is continuously monitoring the situation. The Centre is providing all assistance," Naidu told the media here.

In the flood-hit northern part of Tamil Nadu, the situation has improved slightly with the scale of rain coming down since yesterday. Power supply has been restored in most parts of Chennai. Water has started receding from many areas of the city. However, the suburban west Tambaram areas are still submerged under water.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa will conduct an aerial survey of the flood affected areas of Chennai, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallu today.

The Chennai Airport remained closed till Friday. From today, Chennai bound flights will be landing at INS Rajali Airbase of Indian Navy at Arakonam which is about 60 kilometres from Chennai. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is scheduled to make an aerial survey of the flood affected areas of Chennai, Kanchipuram and Thiruvaloor districts.

Four additional columns of Army troops have arrived in Chennai from Bengaluru for rescue and relief work. Already two columns of Army, consisting of 200 troops, are involved in rescue operations in Kanchipuram district. They have rescued 101 people from buses that were stranded due to flooding.

Three more NDRF teams have joined the relief and rescue work in addition to 14 teams already pressed into service.

The Naval and Air Force Helicopters took sorties to drop food packets in the marooned Mudichur, Varadajapuram and other flood affected suburban areas. The Naval INS Airawat has arrived Chennai with rescue and relief material.

The death toll in rain related incidents in the state has crossed 200.