Though Chennai and suburbs got a respite from the fury unleashed by the North-East monsoon since Monday, the southern districts of Tamil Nadu have come under the spell of heavy rain and floods.
The districts of Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi are being ravaged by incessant rain and floods since the beginning of this week. The Cauvery delta districts of Nagapattinam and Cuddalore continued to be pounded by heavy rain. According to unofficial data, more than two lakh acres of fertile paddy fields have been submerged in water.
Interestingly, this is the peak time when pilgrims and tourists visit Kanyakumari, the land’s end of the country.
Educational institutions in Chennai will be reopened on Monday. But parents, teachers and Government officials are keeping their fingers crossed as the infrastructure in the city and suburbs have taken a sound beating in the recent rain and floods. Though schools and many private business establishments remained shutdown on Friday, the traffic in the city could move only on a snail pace as the roads are in a battered and bruised condition.
“It will take months for restoring these roads to its original condition. The telecommunication network is in a pathetic state. I am more worried about the two-wheeler riders taking to the roads on Monday. There are thousands of potholes posing dangers to the riders as well as pedestrians,” said Ramesh Sethuraman, a senior manager with an IT company.
A BSNl official said it would take weeks before the services return to normalcy. “Optical fibre cables have been cut in many areas and we need weeks to rectify them,” said Ramalingam, a divisional engineer with BSNl.