Chennai: Even as the armed forces and National Disaster Relief Force are working on war footing in flood-ravaged Chennai, rescue operations are being delayed due to poor coordination between rescue teams and local officials, said sources on Sunday.
According to the sources, no one from the local administration is ready to take call on relief material distribution while the Army, Navy and NDRF are handling operations independently.
Meanwhile, sources in the Tamil Nadu government said that there were initial delays in coordination but multiple meetings were conducted with officials from both sides to sort out all issues.
The flood-hit city is slowly limping back to normalcy on Sunday with partial restoration of flight services, electricity, telecommunication, train connectivity and availability of essential items in many parts of Tamil Nadu.
Electricity has been restored in several parts of the city including areas like Velachery, Madipakkam and Adyar which were severely inundated. Several subways including Duraisamy, Nanganallur Thillai Ganga Nagar, St. Thomas Mount have reopened bringing much relief to the commuters. Regular train services from Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore have also resumed.
But Chennaiites can't heave a sigh of relief just yet as the MeT department has predicted heavy rains in certain parts of the city till Monday.
In a major relief, Air Indian and Jet Airways have decided to resume partial flight services from Chennai Airport on Sunday morning. Air India to begin its services from 10 am to 4 pm and Jet Airways too have decided to start its flight services from Bengaluru to Chennai. As far as night operations are concerned decision will be taken on Monday.
The Air India chartered flight AI-549 is scheduled to take off at 10 AM while the airlines' flight AI 429 is scheduled for arrival at Chennai Airport at 1:40 PM, officials said. The same flight AI 430 (AI 429 on return) will depart for New Delhi at 2:45 PM, they added.
The airport had been shut since Tuesday after the runaway got flooded and power lines collapsed.
On Saturday the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha had a review meeting on flood situation in Tamil Nadu. Sinha took a detailed review of the flood situation including the rescue and relief measures undertaken by Tamil Nadu government and assistance provided by central government.
"Chennai did not experience heavy rainfall since Friday and the flood waters are receding. NDRF, and Armed forces sent by Government of India have rescued more than 28000 persons. As the need for rescue has come down, the 50 NDRF teams and 13 army columns deployed are now more pressed into relief services rather than rescue. Road connectivity has been restored. City bus service is functioning. Power supply has been restored to more than 90% of the city. Railways continue to operate special intra-city and outstation services. Normal service is expected to begin from Monday. Restoration of Chennai airport is on the way and will be completed in a day or two. Meanwhile the operation of the civilian flights from the Naval Air Base in Arakonam is continued," a statement issued by MHA read.
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