Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Ambattur industrial estate units yet to reopen

CHENNAI: Several parts of Ambattur Industrial Estate continue to remain under sheets of water, three days after the heavy rains that lashed the city and suburbs. An estimated 400 industrial units have been hit, and they remained closed on Tuesday, too.

The industrial estate, which in recent years has also become a preferred destination for IT companies, houses close to 1,200 units.

Leaders of the association of the unit-holders put the production loss in the estate, since Friday when the surplus water from Ambattur lake inundated it, at around Rs.200 crore.

The unit-owners feared that about 300 units would not be able to resume work for at least two weeks as the areas are still covered under knee-deep water and there is no information on when the power supply would be restored.

Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers’ Association vice-president R. Sridharan said that besides most of the units in the north phase of the estate that remain closed due to water-logging, about 70 others in the south phase did not function for the past four days.

“This is perhaps the first time that the entire industrial estate, including its south phase, was severely affected during monsoon due to an inflow of surplus water from the Ambattur Lake,” he said.

The Third Main Road and its bylanes were the worst hit as the stormwater drain network was rendered ineffective owing to the ongoing elevated corridor project taken up by the National Highways Authority of India. Compounding the problems for the units was the letting out of sewage from three neighbouring residential areas — Menambedu, Mangalapuram and Pattaravakkam — into the SWD network, he said.

AIEMA general secretary S. Chandrasekaran said that with many workers not reporting for work owing to the flooded roads and lack of transport, the production was also affected.

Of the 4lakh to 5 lakh employees, about 50 per cent did not turn up for work either because of inundation or they took ill.

Members of the association said the industrial estate suffered at least three days of production loss every monsoon.

The loss due to the heavy rain has also aggravated the problems faced by the units on account of the power crisis and recession.

The association wanted the authorities to channellise the surplus water from the Ambattur lake to the sea by removing encroachments en route to avoid recurrence of flooding.

The insurance agencies must process the claims faster for the benefit of the units that have suffered heavy loss. The banks and financial institutions must also provide a moratorium on repayment of loans, the association members said.

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