Intermittent showers on Tuesday worsened the condition of many roads and localities in the city and suburbs already battered by rain over the last few days.
Though the rainfall was not heavy on Tuesday, the damage caused by earlier spells of rainfall was aggravated.
Monday's trough of low pressure has moved and now extends from the Comorin area to west central Bay off south coastal Andhra Pradesh. On Tuesday, the observatories in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam received a little over one cm rainfall.
Several roads, including Sterling Road, Nelson Manickam Road, Valluvar Kottam High Road, Velachery Main Road, Race Course Road and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai, bore the brunt of the rainfall.
M.Radhika, a resident of Choolaimedu, said the number of potholes on Nelson Manickam Road is increasing after every day's rainfall. Vehicle movement on the already busy road has become slow and it takes 20 minutes to cross the Nungambakkam vehicular subway, which gets inundated.
Residents of Pensioners Lane, Old Washermenpet, said they had to wade through knee-deep water in the area. The Chennai Corporation is yet to bale out rainwater.
Every monsoon, the problems only gets worse for the residents of Manapakkam as stormwater drains have not been constructed. Areas such as CRR Puram, Gowri Nagar and Manapakkam-Mugalivakkam Main Road are the worst affected. S.K. Krishna Kumar, a resident of CRR Puram, said that water flows like a river in the locality. “The roads were laid by the welfare association as the Panchayat did little. Many of the areas are flooded,” he said.
Motorists travelling on Chennai Tiruvallur High Road face twin problems of inundation and potholed stretches. M.S. Swaminathan, a resident of Ambattur, said that it takes more than an hour to cross a distance of 5 km from Padi to Ambattur telephone exchange as vehicles vie for space on the narrow, damaged stretches. Lack of illumination added to the motorists' woes.
The bus terminus at Ambattur Industrial Estate was also flooded.
People negotiating the stretch of East Coast Road between Thiruvanmiyur and Palavakkam also have similar problems. Several stretches of Velachery Main Road, particularly near Kannigapuram, and Velachery Bypass Road, pose safety hazards for motorists.
Likewise, water-logging and damaged roads near the junction of Sardar Patel Road and Anna Salai have severely affected traffic flow. Those using the stretch want the authorities to temporarily repair the road near a petrol bunk.
In a bid to address the monsoon-related problems, Mayor Saidai S. Duraisamy stressed that damaged roads be repaired soon and garbage be cleared without any delay. At a meeting held here, Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyan said roads spread over an area of 25,000 sq.ft. have been identified for repair. Of this, potholes on roads spread over an area of 10,000 sq.ft. would be immediately filled with brick debris.
The civic body has cleared an additional 6,141 tonnes of garbage in the past six days, he said.
The Meteorological Department forecasts that the city would experience a few spells of rain or thundershower, which may be heavy at times. There may be a decrease in rainfall after November 6.
