Domestic commercial flights from Chennai airport to commence from today

The Air India chartered flight AI-549 is scheduled to take off at 10 am while the airlines' flight AI 429 is scheduled for arrival at Chennai Airport at 1.40 pm, sources told PTI. The same flight AI 430 (AI 429 on return) will depart for New Delhi at 2.45 pm, they added.

The runway, however, will be available only for day-time operations and a decision regarding full-fledged operations will be taken by the aviation regulator DGCA, Airports Authority of India said.

The Regional Meteorological Centre has forecast light rains in the next 24 hours for the city and suburbs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the Tamil Nadu floods while relief of Rs 50,000 has also been sanctioned for those seriously injured. At least 245 people have been killed so far.

Armed forces and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams continued operations, switching focus from rescue to relief while the Army said said it has deployed four medical teams to deal with anticipated problems.

In a big relief to the hapless residents, supply of milk and vegetables picked up pace, but there were complaints of scarcity in several places coupled with high prices for essentials. Mobile phone and internet services were getting restored in a staggered manner in several parts of the city. Several areas complained of continued power outage.

Many banks including SBI, ICICI, HDFC have decided not to impose any penalty on its Chennai customers for delay in EMI payments.

Though flood waters have receded in major roads here, inundation continued in several other areas hampering movement of vehicles and inconveniencing pedestrians.

According to the state government, as many as 3,50,000 people have been rescued and moved to safer places since the commencement of the northeast monsoon in October.