News Content

Chennai flood waters recede as India No 2 state port gets back to normal

INDIA's south eastern port city of Chennai, formerly Madras, is recovering from "once-in-100-year" flooding, which resulted in disruption to container terminal operations.

Although the terminals were operational, the movement of containers in and out of the port was halted, reported Lloyd's Loading List.

Chennai is the second-biggest state-owned container port in India with two terminals including DP World-operated Chennai Container Terminal and PSA International's Chennai International Terminals.

Floodwaters have since receded as the rain eased and port operations slowly returned to normal.

"Visibility was very poor during heavy rains, which resulted in disruption to port and container terminals," said one port official.

"Also, a particular stretch of the road was inundated and remained closed, but is now operational," he said.

"Container terminals faced disruptions due to power failures as the power plant providing electricity was submerged in water."

Although the terminals were operational, the movement of containers in and out of the port was halted.

"The amount of rainfall the city has witnessed over the last few weeks is unprecedented," said shipmanagement Synergy Group CEO Rajesh Unni.

"Any city would have had difficulty to deal with such an outpouring and Chennai had to deal with weak infrastructure too," he said.

"Now the services are restored and work is getting back to normal," he said.