Tech campuses marooned; offices shut; Chennai comes to a standstill

CHENNAI: Record rainfall in Chennai impacted commercial and business activity across the city. While IT campuses on the OMR and inside Mahindra City were marooned, small businesses bore the brunt of Tuesday’s non-stop downpour.
Cognizant, Infosys, HCL Tech, Nissan’s tech centre, Ramco Systems, Wipro allowed their employees to leave work early on Tuesday.Many tech firms asked its employees to work from home. Some companies including Cognizant moved some of its employees involved in providing business continuity solutions to work out of its centres in other cities.
“At HCL, employee safety and security are of utmost priority. Keeping in mind the inclement weather, HCL has been proactive in implementing business continuity measures to ensure continued delivery of time sensitive projects . We have offered flexible work schedule to the employees for the day. While we continue to monitor the on ground situation closely, an advisory has already been issued to the employees and will be kept posted via text messages and mails,” spokesperson of HCL Tech said in a statement.
Cognizant, which employs nearly 60,000 techies in city has declared a holiday for Wednesday due to rains.
Indian Overseas Bank asked nearly 1000 employees go back home by 3 pm. “During the previous heavy spell (23rd November) many of our employees reached home past midnight. We did not want to take a chance again,” a senior official from the bank said.
The rain onslaught has also occurred at the beginning of the month when a section of customers go to branches to withdraw cash or deposit cheques. But bank officials are quick to point out that teller transactions weren’t impacted. “All our ATMs are full and loaded with cash,” the official from IOB added.
Karur Vysya Bank closed down five branches adjoining the Chembarambakkam lake on Tuesday and asked its staff to leave the premises. The bank’s MD K Venkataraman said. “During heavy rains last Monday, many employees who worked in the Velachery branch reached the premises by noon (the bank opening time is 10 am). Today, all branch managers have drawn a contingency plan that includes basic accommodation for stranded employees at nearby locations if it continues to pour”. The bank has 54 branches and 230 ATMs in the city,
Star Health’s,1000 across its corporate office and branches in the city has also given flexible work timings due to Tuesday’s rains. “We have given permission to our employees to log in late and leave early,” chairman and managing director of Star Health and Allied Insurance, V Jagannathan said.
Pump manufacturer, Grundfos which has its offices on Old Mahabalipuram road asked its employees to leave afternoon.