Chennai schools, colleges shut today, city braces for heavy rain

October 31, 2017 09:10

Schools and colleges in Chennai are closed today after the weather office warned of heavy rain in the overcast southern city, a day after it poured all day and forced schools to ring the last bell an hour early at 3 in the evening. An overcast sky still hangs over Chennai today as it had been raining most of the night from 8 pm till just before dawn today.

The meteorological office has forecast heavy rain in Chennai and "very heavy rainfall" in coastal Tamil Nadu. Schools and colleges in Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Puducherry are also closed today.

"Chennai is ready to face heavy rain. Storm water drains have been cleaned and some 300 chronic water stagnation points have been identified. We have readied 400 suction pumps to remove water during heavy rain," D Karthikeyan, Chennai Municipal Corporation Commissioner, said.

In December 2015, Chennai was flooded after the heaviest rainfall in over a century, paralysing the airport and flooding factories in the state that is home to nearly 70 million people. At least 150 people died that year because of heavy rain.

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