Normal life has been disrupted -- the Army and Navy was called in to perform rescue operations -- and people have united to prepare and distribute food packets, drinking water and medicines.
Chennai has been at a standstill for the last one week, taken hostage by what is now being called the worst rains that the city has perhaps seen in the last 100 years.
While schools and colleges remained shut intermittently, automobile manufacturing plants for Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Nissan, TVS, have pulled down shutters or cut shifts till the water recedes. Some IT companies have transferred their assignments to nearby hubs like Hyderabad and Bengaluru, to make sure business goes on as usual while others are hosting employees that haven't been able to go home.
Normal life has been disrupted—the Army and Navy were called in to perform rescue operations—and people have united to prepare and distribute food packets, drinking water and medicines.
Prices for the essentials available—milk, food items, vegetables—have soared at least two-three times.
In the midst of all this, another essential service that has taken the hit is ATM services. Banks have inadvertently remained shut, but even ATMs that are mostly always on the ground floor went down this week and have remained inoperational for the last few days.
K Srinivasamurthy, a resident of T Nagar in Chennai said that banks have been shut for the last few days. Speaking to dna, he said, "There are at least 10 ATMs in the 500 metres around my house, but none of them have been operational at least since Wednesday".
“I have very little cash, and have been relying on the friendly shopkeeper next door,” he said.
K Srinivasamurthy said that he tried contacting HDFC Bank, but there has been no response from them. “Even two alternate numbers provided by the bank garnered no response.”
However, officials from HDFC Bank told dna that the company has been making optimal efforts to make sure that banking services carry on uninterrupted. "Fifty branches are already operational, and about 100 ATMs will be replenished and become operational on Sunday", they said.
The Finance Ministry has directed public sector banks to ensure that ATMs are functional and has even asked banks to provide ATM vans and mobile ATMs mounted on boats in flood-affected areas.
"We have deployed POS terminals at RK Salai in Mylapore and Gopalapuram in Chennai. Any debit or credit card user in Chennai can swipe on the POS and get cash. The cash cap is Rs 5,000 per customer. We have plans to deploy such POS in about 5-6 locations in Chennai city," they added.
Swetha Ravichandran, from Mandaveli, told dna, “ATMs aren't working, and even if they have cash, networks are jammed”. However, she said that banks were now operational in certain places in the city.
Several others confirmed that ATMs have been inoperational in most parts of the city for the last three-four days. Troubled residents also took to Twitter to share their plight.
Power outage huge problem
Apart from water-logging, there has been extensive power outage in the city which has kept ATMs down. There are certain parts of the city that remained without electricity for three straight days.
There are certain areas where power is being restored, and ATMs are slowly being replenished with cash, Subadra Kalyanaraman, currently living in Gopalapuram told dna. She had to move out of her T Nagar residence three days ago after the area got flooded.
“Only select areas have power right now. More than the water receding, power is a problem,” she said. "There is a possibility that ATMs in T Nagar and Ramapuram will start operating soon, however, at other places, it will still be a few hours before the water recedes," she said.
Certain sources that dna got in touch with said that ICICI Bank started loading ATMs on Friday afternoon. At the time, Citibank ATMs were completely down, however, the current status of the bank's ATMs is not known.
Measures by banks
The Finance Ministry directed public sector banks to ensure that ATMs were functional and even asked banks to provide ATM vans and mobile ATMs mounted on boats in flood-affected areas.
ICICI Bank told dna that it had decided to not levy any penalty for its customers in Chennai for delay in EMI and credit card payments for the month of November. It will also waive off charges for cheque bounce in the same period.
ALSO READ: Chennai floods: YES Bank, ICICI, HDFC, SBI will not impose penalty on late EMIs
HDFC Bank, over and above the POS terminals, has also announced a waiver of penalties for late EMI, credit card payments for the month of November. SBI and Yes Bank too have followed suit.
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