Chennai Gears Up For Monsoon: 36 New Boats Deployed As City Braces For Rain

The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has officially procured 36 boats that could be used when the northeast monsoon sets in. The acquisition is aimed to improve the readiness of the city during the onset of heavy rainfall, which is likely to start in the third week of October. This decision follows a forecast made by the Regional Meteorological Centre of increased rainfall in the region.

On X, the governing body announced that the boats have been proactively deployed pan-zonal. While zone-3 has one boat, zone-14 has two and some more allocations were made to the Madhavaram and Perungudi zones.

Besides the boats, the GCC has posted 15 IAS officers to deal with monsoon issues across different zones, as reported by DT Next. These officers shall be used in mapping areas considered vulnerable to disasters and ensuring that requisite resources are provided and readily available in case of an emergency. The corporation also has other communication and traffic management measures to reduce disruption, especially during the rainy seasons.

This proposal comes in response to previous flood incidents in Chennai, especially during cyclone Michaung in December 2023, which caused almost 400 mm of rainfall and severe water logging in the city. This led to criticism of the GCC’s management of the situation and demands to enhance the approaches to disaster management.

Nevertheless, the GCC is continuing to enhance its flood response capacity. The agency has initiated a public notice in recognition of Community Development Volunteers. Such individuals will be useful in the dispersal of information regarding flood situations in the various communities, evacuation and rescue activities among other functions.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Chief Minister M K Stalin declared that the state government has created TN-Alert, a multilingual smartphone application that provides information to the public concerning rainfall statistics, alarms, weather forecasts and reservoir levels. According to a report by The Times Of India, a live flood prediction system was additionally created to offer targeted alerts for locations inside the GCC, which is broken down by street and ward.

To collect data on rainfall in real-time, the government is reportedly setting up 100 automated weather stations and 1,400 automatic rain gauges. According to TOI, the mobile app would also enable the public to notify officials of emergencies and disseminate messages from the meteorological department regarding forecasts and warnings.