IIT-Madras students may lose out on good offers to other IITs in the country as Chennai continues to be in the grip of torrential rains, rendering its campus out of bounds, which has forced the institute to defer its placement process for the first time.
The engineering institute has rescheduled the placements to December 5 to allow the companies that could not make it to the campus on December 2-3 to participate in the process. These companies will now come to campus on December 5 as per their schedule on December 2, the second day of the ongoing placements season. ”This is an unprecedented incident but we had to take a decision to reschedule the placements from December 5,”
IIT Madras’ placement incharge Professor Babu Vishwanathan told ET. He said so far the institute had been reaching out to all the HR heads of the companies that had lined up their requests for placement earlier.
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Torrential rains have taken a heavy toll on the logistics industry with the movement of trucks in and around the city almost coming to a halt due to badly damaged highways and industries downing their shutters.
Industry sources estimate that truck owners now incur loses to the tune of more than Rs30 crore every day. The incessant rains have also damaged the heavy vehicles, which are parked at truck terminals and on the National Highways. In addition, Rs450 crores in the form of taxes paid to the government is lost due to stranded trucks.
According to R Sugumar, president of the Tamil Nadu Lorry Owners Federation, since Diwali, the movement of trucks has been at a standstill in the Northern and coastal districts of the State – including Chennai. “Most of the National Highways like Chennai-Nellore, Chennai-Bangalore, Chennai-Thanjavur and the road linking the Chennai to Karaikal have been severely affected. This has crippled the movement of lorries,” he said.
Claiming that truckers from Tamil Nadu ferry goods to the tune of Rs5,000 crore on a daily basis to the rest of the country, he said that 30 per cent of the above amount was freight charges.
“Now, industries in the rain-affected areas are shut, while sufficient workers are not turning up for duty in some units. This has an adverse impact on production and the net result is no business for us,” Sugumar reasoned.
He urged the National Highway authorities to repair the road immediately, while adding that the State Government must waive the quarterly taxes to help the industry under stress due to the flood. Agreeing with him, an employee of the federation said that 60 per cent of trucks are off the road.
“There are 5.25 lakh trucks in Tamil Nadu and 60 per cent of them are not plying. We have suffered loses of Rs150-Rs200 crore in the last few days,” said K Nalathambi, president of the State Lorry Owners Federation of Tamil Nadu. Truckers also fear that heavy rains in Andhra Pradesh may worsen the situation.
When contacted, sources from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that steps are being taken to repair the affected highways. “As far as the Chennai-Nellore highway is concerned, we are trying to recover it from the contractor, who is responsible for maintenance, and repair it,” said an official who requested anonymity.
Leading automobile companies in Chennai, one of India’s largest automotive hubs were badly crippled by the heavy rains, said to be the highest in a decade, which forced them to halt production and despatches for the second straight day.
The factories of Ford, Renault-Nissan, Daimler India and Yamaha have remained shut for the second straight day leading to a cumulative production loss of Rs 150-180 crore, and an additional few hundred crore at the vendors end. ET learns, due to the two days of production shut down approximately 1200 Ford cars were not produced.
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At Renault-Nissan plant in Oragadam, another 1800 cars were affected due to the shut down and sources said there are a few hundred cars on the road for delivery, which are now stranded due to the torrential downpour. Both Ford and Renault Nissan have indicated that they are likely to resume production on Wednesday.
German truck maker Daimler had shut the plant on Monday and Tuesday has decided to keep its plant open on this Saturday, in order to make up for lost production. While Hyundai Motor India did not see a major production loss, however, the stranded trucks due to the roads getting flooded forced them to halt shipments.
This will lead to an increase in waiting period of in-demand models Creta and Elite i20, by 7-10 days. While the spokesperson for Renault-Nissan India plant claimed that there will be little or no impact on vehicle or part deliveries to the customers, the French partner Renault’s small car Kwid, has a significant waiting period, may see a further delay in deliveries.
Two-wheelers including Royal Enfield lost approximately 1,500 units of production in a day and Yamaha also lost production of thousands of vehicles in the last two days, as the workers were left stranded at home due to flooded roads making it impossible for them to travel to work. A senior executive at an automotive company said, more than the production lost, which can be recouped in the coming weeks, it is the allied infrastructure of roads and ports tied into the supply chain issues which are a bigger challenge.
Rakesh Srivastava, Sr VP, sales and marketing at Hyundai Motor India says, the extent of monsoon is unprecedented and it has created huge logistical challenge for both domestic and export operation. ”So far the production is not impacted, it is normal, however there are logistical challenges.
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With the support of supply chain partners, teams are working continuously to tide over the situation and ensure that the vehicles are delivered in time. But still due to incessant rains, the waiting period for models may get impacted by a week to 10 days,” added Srivastava.
Ford India spokesperson confirmed that the production at the plant has been halted but the company continues to monitor the situation closely to return to normalcy. Renault Nissan spokesperson added that the employee safety was the company’s primary concern and the incessant rains had made the commute very difficult, hence the company decided to close the plant at the start of the week.
Renault Nissan expects to resume production operations before the weekend as the floods subside and the weather improves. The heavy rains, which started on Saturday night has already submerged some key parts in and around Chennai which includes Cuddalore, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Villupuram. The shower which has claimed over 79 lives and forced authorities to evacuate 10,000 people from low lying areas.
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