There has been no rain in Chennai this morning and water levels in the Adyar and Cooum rivers have reduced following a sharp fall in the discharge of water from Chembarapakkam, Pondi and Puzhal lakes.

Meanwhile, limited commercial flight operations are likely to start from the Rajali naval air station in Arakkonam near Chennai from today, the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Thursday. Seven flights will be operated. Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet have indicated that they will operate flights. These are commercial flights the passengers would only be allowed to carry hand baggage and not check-in baggage. Shuttle train services are available from Chennai airport at an interval of 15 minutes to travel to Rajali.

The flight details of these limited sorties available on DGCA website.

1.     Truejet (Hyderabad- Arakkonam-Hyderabad) 0830/0855 (only on 04 Dec),

2.     Spicejet (Cochin-Arakkonam-Bangalore) 0945/1115

3.     Spicejet  (Cochin-Arakkonam-Bangalore) 1500/1630,

4.      Indigo (Hyderabad-Arakkonam-Bangalore) 1130/1300

5.     Indigo (Bangalore-Arakkonam-Delhi) 1645/1815,

6.     Air India (Hyderabad- Arakkonam-Hyderabad) 1315/1445

7.     Air India (Hyderabad-Arakkonam-Bangalore) 1830/

And Chennai woke up to face a huge shortage of food and essential items like milk and water. One-litre milk packet is being sold for Rs 100 in some places. A bottle of mineral water is costing Rs. 150 and tomato and beans are being sold for Rs. 80 to Rs. 90 a kg.

Rescue work has been hampered in some areas due to live electricity wires from broken poles that have fallen into the water. The state electricity board had suspended power as a precautionary measure.

The city also stares at health problems associated with contaminated food and water, disrupted sewer supply and mosquito-borne infections.  Nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, acute diarrhoea, severe skin allergies, infected cuts and wounds inevitably follow flooding. Chennai flooding could also cause hepatitis E that leads to jaundice and high fever.

The other outbreaks to watch out for are hepatitis A, which again causes symptoms of fever and jaundice, cholera, enteric fevers such as typhoid, and mosquito-borne fevers such as malaria and chikungunya.

Union health minister J P Nadda spoke to Tamil Nadu health minister Dr C Vijaya Baskar on Wednesday offering support.

The Southern Railways have announced special trains to Tirunelveli, Rameswaram and Howrah from Chennai Beach station.

The power supply was restored in the areas where water has receded, but it was still cut in many other places.

Mobile phone services, which had taken a severe beating following the heavy downpour on Tuesday, were partially restored even as other services such as ATMs continued to remain shut.

Transport services were also showing signs of picking up.

Train services on the suburban Chennai Arakonnam stretch were partially restored. Southern Railway officials said they were yet to take a call on restoration of services on the other busy Tambaram—Chennai beach route which covers both business and residential areas.

The Chennai Metro line continued to witness enhanced patronage in the wake of suspension of bus and rail transport.