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CITY2 | THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

CHENNAI

ramanyam (Vocal). Main Sp-onsor: APOLLO HOSPITALS.Associate Sponsor: GOLDWINNER. Co-Sponsors: SA-REGAMA CLASSICAL, RAM-CO GROUP, LARSEN &TOUBRO, CO-OPTEX, NALLISILKS, INDIAN OIL, INDIANBANK, CHENNAI PETRO-LEUM, STATE BANK OFINDIA, NAC JEWELLERS,REPCO HOME FINANCE,NEWRY PROPERTIES andSYNDICATE BANK. ValetParking Available. All areWelcome.

Brahma Gana SabhaToday’s program postponeddue to rains. Sorry for theinconvenience.

Chennai Cultural AcademyTrust (Regd.), Phone:7200074538/ 9840074538Fine Arts Festival (12th De-cember 2015 to 5th January2016) at Ramarao Kala Man-tap A/c, 111, Habibullah RoadT.Nagar. Advance bookingfor Season and Daily DonorEntry passes are available atthe venue daily from 10 a.m.to 8 p.m. 13th Dec Sunday7-00 p.m. Dr. K.J. Jesudas.For full details see Yester-day’s The Hindu Music Sup-plement. Credit/ Debit cardfacilities available. Powered

MUSIC DANCE DRAMA

AAA/Abai, TVK Cultural5-12-2015 Saturday 7 p.m. @Vani Mahal A/c (Obul ReddyHall) Crazy Mohan + MadhuBalaji’s Brand New Comedy“GOOGLE GADOTHGAJAN”For Tickets Ph: 9884152200.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, East Mada Street, Mylapore,“Bhavan’s CulturalFestival-2015”Today 4-30 p.m.: Smt. San-geetha Sivakumar (Vocal)with Sri R.K. Shriramkumar(Violin), Sri K. Arun Prakash(Mridangam) and Sri Ani-rudh Athreya (Kanjira) andat 6-45 p.m.: Sri O.S. Arun(Bhajan Sandhya) with Mul-laivasal Sri G. Chandramouli(Violin), Thiruvaarur Sri Vai-dyanathan (Mridangam), SriS. Krishnan (Harmonium),Sri Kirankumar (Tabla) andSri A. Selvam (Thalam). To-morrow: 3rd: 4-30 p.m.: Smt.K. Gayatri (Vocal) and at 6-45p.m.: Dr. Vijayalakshmy Sub-

by Nalli Chinnasami Chetty.

Kalarasana in Association withSP Group of CompaniesPresents Concerts at TapovanHall – Chinmaya HeritageCentre, No. 2, 13th Avenue,Harrington Road, Chetpet at6-15 p.m. On December 12thDr. Bombay Jayashri Ram-nath on December 25th P.Unnikrishnan. On 30th De-cember Ranjani Gayathri.Tickets will be available from7th December onwards from5-00 p.m. to 7-00 p.m. ForDetails contact 9176681915,7299986700.

Kartik Fine Arts 24997788, 41stYear Art Festival in associationwith Apollo Hospitals andRajalakshmi InstitutionsToday 10-00 a.m. NaradaGana Sabha Mini Hall Mando-lin Sisters (Sree Usha & Sree-sha), Delhi Sairam, Nanga-nallur Swaminathan. 12-15p.m. Madhu Iyer, N.S. Kama-kshi, Ammangudi Ramana-rayanan. 2-00 p.m. MalavikaSundar, K.P. Nandhini, Ban-galore Ragunath Rajaram.All are Welcome Main Hall:04-30 p.m. ‘Isai Peroli’ Tri-chur Brothers: (SrikrishnaMohan & Ramkumar Mo-han), H.N. Bhaskar, Trichur

R. Mohan, D.V. Venkatasu-bramanian. 06-45 p.m. ‘Sar-vam Saikke Samarpanam’ byStudents of Bharathanjali,Concept & Choreography:Anitha Guha. Donor Passesavailable from 10-00 a.m.Contact: 24983201. Tomor-row: 04-30 p.m. GayathriGirish. 06-45 p.m. SrideviNrithyalaya presents ‘LeelaTaranga Margam.’

M6 Events Zee Tamil PresentsLakshman Sruthyin “CHEN-NAIYIL THIRUVAIYARU”Season-11 an eight day MegaCarnatic Music & DanceFestival Dec. 18-25, 2015.

Daily 7-00 a.m. to 10-00 p.m.along with Food Festival atKamarajar Arangam. Ph.Tickets: 88070 44521 www.lakshmansruthi.com FoodFestival: 99621 31559.

MaragathamSankaranarayanan Trust andBrahma Gana SabhaWe regret to inform you thatthe Remembrance Day con-cert of Kallidaikurichi Dr.E.S. Sankaranarayana Iyerwhich is to take place today inSivakami Pethachi Auditori-um stands Postponed due toinclement weather. Reviseddate will be announced later.

Narada Gana Sabha (Regd),Chennai-600018. Ph: 24993201Pre Music Festival Concerts:Today Mini Hall, 4-30 p.m.Chaitrra Sairam, K.J. Dileep,Sumesh S. Narayanan. 6-30p.m. Mahanadhi Dr. ShobanaVignesh, Dr. Usha Raja-gopalan, B. Ganapathira-man, Trichy K. Murali. Allare welcome.

Sarvani Sangeetha Sabha28151417Today Concert Postponed.Inconvenience Regretted.

Sri Dwaram VenkataswamyNaidu Memorial Trust (Regd.)The 51st Gurupooja Anniver-sary Day Celebrations Sched-uled Today is Postponed Dueto Inclement Weather. Incon-venience is regretted.

The Mylapore Fine Arts Club(Regd.) Phone: 24997755Today Bharathanatyam 5-45p.m. Kum. R. SHRUTHI UM-AYAL (Disc. of Smt. Meenak-shi Chitharanjan). 7-15 p.m.Kum. SWATHI SAMBASI-VAM (Disc. of Sri M.V. Nara-simhachari & Smt. Vasantha-lakshmi). All are welcome.

MISCELLANEOUS

Sringeri Bharathi Vidyashram,T.Nagar, Ph: 24348964Tomorrow Mahadevashtami.8-30 a.m. Mahanyasam/ Rud-hrabhishekam; 11-30 a.m.:Mahadeepharadhanai, Maha-pradasam. 5-12-2015, 6 p.m.:Ayyappan Bajans by KovaiJayarama Bagavathar & Par-ty; 6-12-2015, 8-30 a.m.: Sas-tha Preethi (AyyappanPooja). All are Welcome.

CINEMA ● ARTS ● EVENTS

Order to demolish buildings set asideQuestioning the government’s urgency in seeking to demolish the second block ofTrust Heights’ apartments in Moulivakkam while not acting on other such buildings,the High Court wondered if it was witnessing “shadow boxing” >> Page 7

Unsung artists behind classic musicalsThillana Mohanambal not only showcased Sivaji Ganesan's talent, but also thebrilliance of T.S. Balaiah and K. Sarangapani. The thavil players behind the sceneswere Thevur T.S. Santhanam and Thiruvidaimarudhur T.V. Venkatesan >> Page 6

CHENNAI: With the rain showing nosigns of letting up, some hospitalson Tuesday allowed staff to leaveearly to get home safe, while at oth-ers, employees found it difficult tocome in to work as their houseswere flooded.

R. Marimuthu, a staff nurse at agovernment hospital, was strandedin his home in East Tambaram, withwater completely inundating thepremises.

“I just about managed to get outwith my certificates and I’m takingshelter at a nearby school,” he said.

His wife, also a nurse, managedto get to work at Egmore as she wason a morning shift when the rainswere not very heavy, but is nowstuck at Pallavaram, unable to makeit home as the trains have stopped,he said. “I don’t know how she isgoing to come back,” he added.

While most hospitals have beenfunctioning normally with bothoutpatient and inpatient services

carrying on, extra measures havebeen taken to ensure safety. At Ra-jiv Gandhi Government GeneralHospital, some staff members wereallowed to leave early as rain bat-tered the city throughout the day.However, emergency serviceswere fully staffed, a senior officialsaid. Some doctors at Global Hos-pitals too, left a little early, as didnon-essential staff at Apollo Hospi-tals. At Government Kilpauk Medi-cal College, which is waterlogged,motors are operating to pump wa-ter out, said dean Narayana Babu.

“We have buses for our nursesand have told our junior doctorsthat they can stay on in the hostelsif necessary. Food supplies andclothes will be provided. For doc-tors who are required to come tothe hospital in the night, we havearranged for them to use our ambu-lances,” said N. Sathyabhama, di-rector of medical services at ApolloHospitals.

Ambulance drivers have been hithard as the damaged roads made

tough going. “While the traffic is not too bad

as very few people are driving, thecondition of the roads is making itvery difficult. We take 40 minutesto get to a destination that normallytakes about 20,” one employee ofthe 108 ambulance service said. Insome parts such as Meenambak-kam however, traffic pile-ups con-tinued into the late afternoon lead-ing to delays, another employeesaid.

The 108 ambulance service hasbeen inundated with flood-relatedcalls and are collaborating in res-cues along with other services, saidB. Prabhudoss, head, marketingand hospital relations, GVK EMRI,which operates the service.

“We have allotted five additionalambulances for Tambaram forflood rescues. Pregnant women areour priority and we have shiftedmany of them. We have received atleast 1,000 additional calls over andabove our usual calls on Tuesday,”he said.

Ambulance drivers had a tough time negotiating many stretches — PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN

Hospital services severely affected

ZUBEDA HAMID

CHENNAI: Continuous rain sincethe early hours of Tuesday ledto the breaching of 35 majorlakes, mostly in the southernparts of the Chennai Metro-politan Area, rendering thou-sands of residents homeless.There was also a completebreakdown of essential ser-vices. Those who travelled towork with great difficultywere, on their way back home,stranded mid-way as most ofthe transport services wentinto a tailspin.

When the day ended, the

city was completely battered,having received wounds thatwould take a long time to heal.

Arterial roads became un-motorable, leaving thousandsof commuters stranded andresidents marooned.

The lakes that breached in-clude Kalavakkam, Thirukaz-hukundram, Korapattu, Sho-nalur, Perungalathur,Thenmelpakkam, Irumpuliy-ur, Peerkankaranai, Keelkatta-lai, Pallavaram, Pallikaranaiand Mudichur.

“In addition to this, minorbreaches have also occurredin most of the other waterbo-dies. We have taken 23000

residents to 99 relief camps inKancheepuram district. Butlakhs of residents are ma-rooned in the southern sub-urbs. All roads are inundated,disrupting traffic. We are un-able to take food packets tomarooned residents,” said anofficial.

Traffic on arterial roadssuch as GST Road, RajivGandhi Salai, East CoastRoad, Outer Ring Road andPoonamalle High Road wasthrown out of gear. The trafficpolice diverted traffic on arte-rial roads, advising motoriststo avoid stretches such asGST Road, East Coast Road

and Rajiv Gandhi Salai. Most of the 471 bus route

roads in Chennai Corporationlimits remained inundated.

Seven subways includingPazhavanthangal, ThillaiGanga Nagar, St.ThomasMount, Meenambakkam, Ga-nesapuram, Duraisamy andRangarajapuram were closedfor traffic.

Several residents of southChennai who had just carriedout repairs in their floodedhouses, found to their chagrinthat their houses were flood-ed again.

R. Nagarajan, a resident ofNew Kuberan Nagar in Madi-

pakkam, said he had been liv-ing in the area for 40 years butthis was the first time hishouse was flooded with knee-deep water.

“Most of our valuables aregone. We don’t know how tomanage the situation here.The Madipakkam lake is al-most full now,” he added.

In Ram Nagar North in Ma-dipakkam, many residents lefttheir homes to safer places aswater was at least three feethigh, as early as afternoon.

Sandhya Shivakumar saidthey sent her father-in-law toher relatives’ house as soon aswater entered her house.

“It is the fourth time thatwater is entering our housethis monsoon. We have justlocked it and moved upstairs.There is no respite for any ofus here,” she added.

Many by-lanes in Madipak-kam, Hindu Colony andLakshmi Nagar in Nanganal-lur, Ram Nagar in Velacheryand Sriram Nagar in Kotturpu-ram had severe waterlogging.

Radhika, a resident of Vela-chery, said her compound wallhad collapsed this monsoon.

“The rains have not stoppedand we just don’t know how tohandle the situation here,” sheadded.

Inundated roads saw heavy traffic logjams. A scene at Gandhi Irwin Road. (Right) Residents wade through water in Keelkattalai after the lake there breached — Photo: R. Ragu

As 35 lakes breach their banks, Chennai goes under again

ALOYSIUS XAVIER LOPEZ

AND SUNITHA SEKAR

Complete breakdown of essential services; arterial roads become unmotorable; most bus routes remain inundated. Residents scramble for safety again

CHENNAI: The heavy rain thatlashed the city and suburbsbrought road traffic to a grind-ing halt but the operation ofsuburban train services on allsections for a good part of theday was a relief to residents.

However, train services be-tween Chennai Beach andTambaram were hit due toflooding of suburban plat-forms at Tambaram.

A senior official of theSouthern Railway said trainservices between ChennaiBeach and Tambaram wereterminated at Pallavaram be-tween 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. be-cause platforms 1 to 4 wereflooded at Tambaram station.But, train services from Chen-nai Beach to Chengalpattuand Thirumalpur proceedingvia Tambaram were operatedwith delayed arrival and de-parture, he added.

S. Murugan, a resident ofCivil Aviation Colony, Nanga-nallur, said it took him morethan two hours to reach thePalavanthangal railway sta-tion from Chengalpattu be-cause the train was stopped atvarious points along theroute.

The Mass Rapid TransitSystem (MRTS) servicesfrom Chennai Beach to Vela-chery and train services toThiruvallur and Gummidi-poondi were operated, butwith delays.

As the MRTS is on an ele-vated stretch for a major por-tion and the Velachery rail-way station was not flooded,trains could be operated nor-mally, said a Southern Rail-way official. Due to floodingof railway tracks on the Tam-baram-Villupuram section,the Southern Railway can-celled 31 long-distance trainswhich were to start fromChennai Egmore. 12, long dis-tance trains were diverted.

Several flights were de-layed by the heavy rain.

Airport sources said fromearly morning on Tuesday,most flights were affected.Several flights from the air-port including those of Air In-dia, Jet Airways and IndiGo tovarious cities including Ko-chi, Colombo, Delhi, Pune,Bangalore, Hyderabad, Singa-pore, Kolkata, Port Blair andKuala Lumpur were delayed.

Also, those flights arrivingfrom Mumbai, Delhi, AbuDhabi, Pune and Hyderabadlanded late.

On gloomy day, MRTSservices a ray of hope R. SRIKANTH AND

SUNITHA SEKAR

CHENNAI: Due to sluggish trafficmovement, commuters werestuck on the roads for hourson end. Since the MTC busservices were affected, manyturned to train services to re-ach their respective destina-tions. However, train serviceswere also hit on certain sec-tions.

The continuous rains leftmany parts of the city inun-dated.

“I left Sardar Patel Roadaround 2.30 p.m. and headedfor Anna Salai. But, by 4.15p.m., I had reached only NorthBoag Road. The vehicles weremoving very slowly,” said An-uradha Raghuraman, a home-maker. Sudeesh, a marketingexecutive, complained thatbus services were affected.

“I waited for nearly an hourfor a bus on route 21 on Anna

Salai. I then took an MRTSservice to reach my house inMandavelli,” he said.

According to police offi-cers, often, water entered theengines and exhaust pipes ofvehicles. “In Vadapalani, Sai-dapet and T. Nagar, many mo-torists were stranded,” said a

police officer.The entire traffic police

force was on the road tryingto ensure the free flow of ve-hicles. “A holiday should havebeen declared for all govern-ment offices. This would havereduced the number of vehi-cles,” said a police source.

Meanwhile, a senior MTCofficial claimed that manybuses were stuck in the jam.

“The vehicles were notmoving freely in some partsof the city like Saidapet. Wethought of improving the ser-vices once the rain stopped.But it never happened,” saidan official.

Residents were also left inthe lurch as cab services werenot available. “None of thedrivers were willing to takerisks and spoil their cars. Be-sides, many autorickshawswere also not plying as waterentered the vehicles,” said C.Cyril, a resident of Santhome.

A traffic police officer saidthat had they ensured thattraffic was smooth on the ar-terial roads. “We diverted allthe buses through the Banga-lore Highway and they wentthrough Sriperumbudur,”said an officer.

Residents not only waited for a long time to get buses but alsostruggled while boarding — Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam

MTC services hit, traffic jams proliferateSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT