Chennai roads see more boats as fresh spells of rain strike the city

CHENNAI: Chennai- roads see more boats as fresh spells of rain strike the city. Taking a cue from online cab aggregator Ola who earlier surprised those stranded in the rains by launching four boat services, this time traditional call taxi services are gearing up to outperform the former.

NTL India, a conventional call taxi provider, has introduced 15 boats with trained rescue emergency team in several parts of the city. “The boats are stationed in several parts of the city and helpline numbers have been provided so that in case anybody needs rescue services they can use it,” said Renish MR, who takes care of India operations for NTL.

While the rescue personnel have been hired individually as well as via agencies, boats have been rented out directly from fishermen. “They are also part of the rescue team as they are practically trained. This will also be an earning for them as they will not be able to go in to to the sea during the rains,” he said.

On its first day of operations the NTL boats, which have a capacity of 3-4 people, ferried around 215 people to dry lands including employees stranded at their offices. “We received some requests from a company located at an IT park in Perungalathur and we carried out shuttle services for around 140 people from the company to the main road,” Renish said.

As incessant rains continue, NTL which has deployed a 75 member team – 45 on ground and 30 on co-ordination, is planning to add at least 10 more boats in the coming days. “As of now we have planned the operations for three days as per the weather forecast. By tomorrow we are planning to provide food items like dry fruits, milk , bread etc which can be consumed immediately.”

Meanwhile the fishermen who have been part of the rescue services have been provided shelter and food by the company.