Moderate to heavy rains to continue over Chennai and neighbouring districts: IMD

With rains continuing its downpour over the city, the shutters of Chembarambakkam and Red Hills reservoirs will be reopened after 1 pm on Tuesday to discharge minimal amounts of water.
The Water Resources Department (WRD) has initially planned to release 500 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water from these water bodies that have started receiving floodwater runoff from their catchment areas. It could be one of the rare instances for floodgates to be opened in January.
Officials of the WRD said the water level in Chembarambakkam lake has reached 23 feet against its full level of 24 feet. We plan to increase the discharge depending on the inflow. Flood warning notice have been issued to areas downstream of the lake and along Adyar river, including Kavanur, Kundrathur and Tiruneermalai. Adyar river may carry up to 3,000 cusecs once the water is released and it may go up to 6,000 cusecs. This is minimal compared to its carrying capacity, said an official.
Similarly, there is only half a feet of space at Red Hills lake to touch its full level of 21.20 feet and receiving inflow of nearly 1,500 cusecs. We have decided to let out 500 cusecs into the surplus course as the reservoir has 3,206 million cubic feet of water against its capacity of 3,300 mcft. Flood warning notice has been provided to areas such as Vadakarai, Puzhal, Kosapur and Manali, the official said.
The shutters of Poondi reservoir were already open for two days as it got inflow from catchment areas upstream and about 480 cusecs of water was being discharged into Kosasthalaiyar river.
Several parts of Chennai received moderate to heavy rains on Tuesday under the influence of an easterly trough. During the past 24 hours ending 8.30 a.m. on Tuesday, the weather stations in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam received 6 cm and 5 cm respectively.
While the automatic rain gauges in Maduranthakam and Hindusthan University in Chengalpet district recorded 6 cm of rains each till 8.30 a.m., those at Taramani, Kelambakkam, Kolapakkam and Anna University in and around Chennai and Tindivanam in Villupuram district recorded 5 cm. This was followed by Tambaram with 4 cm of rains.
As rains intensified during the day, Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam recorded 2 cm and 4 cm respectively between 8.30 a.m. and noon.
The Meteorological Department has forecast moderate to heavy rains over Chennai and its neighbouring districts till Wednesday.