CHENNAI : There was no rain on Monday. But traffic snarls on almost all the main roads during the morning rush hour made for a horrendous day for office-goers.

Residents of South Chennai and suburbs were among the worst affected. Having spent their weekend indoors, they were in for a shock on Monday morning as all arterial roads in south Chennai were chock-a-block with stranded vehicles, throwing traffic out of gear for nearly two hours. Medavakkam Main Road, Madipakkam Main Road, Taramani Link Road and Old Mahabalipuram Road were some of the worst affected. Office-goers bound for the city via Madipakkam and Velachery were concerned that they might be docked half-a-day's salary for reaching their offices late.

The Madipakkam Main Road, prone to flooding every monsoon, was unmotorable for the most part. The road was inundated and had taken a beating. With pebbles strewn along the main roads, two-wheelers and three-wheelers were having a bumpy ride on the stretch. The State Highways Department had dumped gravel to increase the height of the road and prevent flooding. But this had only made things worse.

The situation on Taramani Link Road and C.S.I.R. Road, where the Ascendas IT park is located, was even worse as both the roads were submerged under two feet of water, bringing into focus the inadequate drainage. In fact, only a few months back the Chennai Corporation had renovated and widened the storm water drain on the road to prevent flooding. But there was nearly knee-deep rainwater above the storm water drains.

Motoring down Taramani Link Road was a painful experience with the road flooded from The American International School to the junction of New Veeranam Salai and Taramani Link Road. Office-goers and IT professionals bound for Tiruvanmiyur having no personal transport had a long wait at the bus stops, with MTC buses few and far between.

With a large crowd gathering at the Anna Salai - Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar Road junction at Nandanam to celebrate `Thevar jayanti' in the morning, traffic police diverted vehicles off Kotturpuram Main Road. It led to a pile up on Sardar Patel Road and Anna Salai.

Residents of T. Nagar were also hit hard by waterlogging and traffic jams following the recent heavy rain.

Valmiki Street connecting G.N.Chetty Road and Thirumalai Pillai Road was heavily inundated. Bazullah Road was almost like a canal.

To avoid Bazullah Road, many motorists chose to go to Usman Road via G.N. Chetty Road. Traffic inched along North Usman Road taking half an hour to cover hardly half a kilometre to the end of Bazullah Road.

All streets off Usman Road were heavily inundated till late in the evening. Cars and heavy vehicles splattered slush on pedestrians and two-wheeler drivers. On Thirumalai Pillai Road, there was a gridlock and traffic was piled up from G.N.Chetty Road to Kodambakkam High Road. The stretch between Bazullah Road to the Padma Seshadri Balabhavan School took 45 minutes for the vehicles to cover.

In North Chennai, traffic crawled on Perambur High Road and Konnur High Road. The route had additional traffic as vehicles were diverted from Vyasarpadi.

The drive turned risky in the evening, as many streetlights did not work.

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