In the last two days, many mechanics in the city have been constantly getting calls from customers seeking to repair their vehicles damaged in the floods.
B. Saravanan, who has been running an automobile shop in T. Nagar for more than two decades now, said he had been receiving numerous calls from residents in T. Nagar, G.N. Chetty Road and West Mambalam. “I had to turn down many requests because I’m not able to handle so many at a time. But thankfully, most of the repairs, are not very major ones. Many cars need some minor brake and clutch repairs. These will cost anywhere between ₹5,000-₹7,000,” he says. Major problem arises when water reaches the petrol or diesel tank or the engine itself and it may be pretty expensive to fix it, he added.
But the number of calls were much less compared to 2015. And the repairs too, were largely not serious, the mechanics said. Suresh R, who own an automobile service station in Kolathur, said residents from not just Kolathur, which was one of the worst flood-hit areas this time, but those from Koyambedu and Madhavaram too called him. “I got over 50 calls, but I could do water damage repairs for 10 vehicles so far because I don’t have adequate manpower as most of my staff haven’t returned from the Deepavali holiday,” he said .
Mechanics in Alwarpet and West Mambalam said they had been getting hundreds of calls as many didn’t expect such a massive flooding over a short span of time.
Many residents in Velachery decided to park their vehicles on the flyover and some in their office spaces.
S. Karthik, who has a car service station in Ramapuram said, “I had a few clients for whom I took the vehicles from the underground parking lot and took it to my garage so that they are protected. Many mechanics did it for their customers and stationed the vehicles in safer places,” he added.
