Bus services in seven Tamil Nadu districts, which were suspended as a precautionary measure in view of Cyclone Nivar and subsequent heavy rainfall predictions, will resume from 12 noon on Thursday, 26 November, Chief Minister E Palaniswami said.
In addition to bus services, operations at the Chennai airport have also resumed and by 12 pm, Chennai metro services will also resume on Thursday.
“In connection with Niver Cyclone, Metro Train Services will start by today (26.11.2020) 12.00 pm, will run with Holiday Train Services Time table with the headway of 10 mins,” the official handle of the Chennai Metro Rail said on Twitter.
Operations at the Chennai airport resumed at 9 am on Thursday. Earlier, the airport was scheduled to start operations at 7 am, but this timing was extended after assessing the situation and as per the prevailing climatic conditions. The airport has put up the timings of the flights scheduled for Thursday and asked passengers to check with the concerned airline(s) for any update.
Cyclone Nivar made landfall between Wednesday night and early Thursday morning near Puducherry, triggering heavy rainfall both in Puducherry as well as Tamil Nadu. As per meteorological data, Puducherry received the highest rainfall of 30 cm, followed by Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu with 27 cm. Nagapattinam recorded 6.3 cm rainfall, Karaikal 9.6 cm and Chennai 11.3 cm.
Deputy Director-General of Meteorology, Chennai, S Balachandran said rainfall is likely to continue in Tamil Nadu and the storm now lay inside the land area and it would further weaken.
The approach roads to the Marina beach, off the arterial Kamaraj Salai, were flooded and sheets of water reached close to the main road where the city's fishermen had securely tied up their boats. In several areas, incidents of trees falling and walls collapsing were also reported. As per initial reports, at least three deaths have been reported due to rain-related incidents in Chennai.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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