The Ambattur Industrial Estate, which houses some crucial micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) units, continued to be inundated on Tuesday. It is estimated that the loss for the estate caused by the rain could be over ₹500 crore.
Chennai and its surrounding places witnessed massive rain since Sunday, owing to the cyclonic storm Michaung. “Many tress have fallen inside the estate. We are clearing it. Water has receded in the south phase. But the north phase continues to be inaccessible. The water level at the north phase is around 4 feet. Only when it clears, we can assess the damages,” G. Aravind, president, Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturer’s Association, said.
This is not the first time that this estate has been hit by rain. Ganesh Babu V.B., president, Chennai District, Laghu Udyog Bharathi, said: “Ambattur lake has been opened. The canal opening has only one way, via Korattur lake. This is the reason for waterlogging.... Only if they divert the canal to multiple canals this problem can be resolved. Otherwise this will happen every year.”Details collated until Tuesday evening show that around 100 units had been impacted at the Thirumudivakkam Industrial Estate. “The flooding here was caused due to the water overflow from Chembarambakkam and nearby lakes. The main estate is fine now. However, there is water stagnation at the micro estate and phase II. As of now, over ₹50-crore worth losses are incurred at this estate,” R. Selvam, vice-president of the Thirumudivakkam Industrial Estate Manufacturers’ Association, said.
The situation was even worse at the Thirumazhisai Industrial Estate. Its president S. Gajraj said the entire facility had been struggling since the rain began last Wednesday, and the cyclone exacerbated the situation. “They have now released water from Namam lake and this has increased the water level inside the estate by another two feet. Every unit here has inundation up to two feet. Only after the water drains, we can ascertain the damages to plant, machinery and raw materials,” he said. This estate has over 300 units.
Bakul Patel, president of SIDCO Industrial Estate Villivakam Manufacturers Association, said there was water up to 3 feet inside the estate and no steps had been taken so far by the government to clear it. He sought immediate help from the government.
K. Baskaran, secretary of the Kakkalur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association, said losses were yet to be calculated and power supply was yet to be resumed at the estate.
Employees of IT sector and start-ups who were provided the option of work from home were unable to login from their homes as there was no internet and phone networks across the city were jammed. Airtel spokesperson, through a WhatsApp message, said: “Due to heavy waterlogging, uprooting of trees and power failure in Chennai, some of our sites were down. Our on-ground teams have been working round-the-clock and have successfully restored connectivity in most parts of the city. We hope to have 100% normalcy very soon.”
Other Telecom and Internet Service Providers were unreachable for comments. In the last 48 hours, calls have been dropping across Chennai and in many zones mobiles could not be reached.Many factories, companies and automobile firms remained closed on Tuesday. The TVS Group said: “All plants of TVS Group Companies at Padi, Chennai, are badly affected with knee deep water inside the facility affecting all machinery and materials. Situation got out of control Monday night when upstream water from Korattur was let into Padi plant area. The water is draining very slowly due to downstream draining issues. Corporation help has been sought to restore normalcy by prioritising the area in their efforts.”
These plants are the heartbeat of the auto industry in Tamil Nadu.
Supreme Petrochem Limited, in a notification to the stock exchange, said: “The operations/productions of our EPS Plant in Chennai have been stopped due to heavy rainfall and subsequent discharge of water from Puzhal reservoir leading to submerging of all the roads of plant and manufacturing complex caused by severe cyclonic storm “Michuang”. The expected downtime/damages can be assessed only after the water level recedes. The plant has adequate insurance cover including loss of profit insurance.”
Automobile firms like Hyundai remained closed on Tuesday too. Many electronics firms have also halted their conveyor belts. “We will know the exact loss on production, plant and machinery, infrastructure and raw materials only when everyone gets back to work,” an industrialist said, adding that that the loss for industry could run into several crores.
