Chennai | Heavy rains lashed Chennai and northern districts, and a holiday was declared for schools in Chennai, Thiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts on Wednesday.

With the northeast monsoon vigorous, Chennai and neighbouring districts witnessed showers since Tuesday evening.

The Met department on Wednesday forecast more downpours in the next 48 hours.

The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), in its latest bulletin, indicated that a low-pressure formation is likely to take shape over the southwest Bay of Bengal, close to the Tamil Nadu coastline, on Wednesday.

Tuesday's upper air cyclonic circulation over the Southwest Bay of Bengal off north Tamil Nadu coast now lay over Southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining Tamil Nadu coast, the bulletin added.

Under its influence, a low pressure area is likely to form over the same region during next 24 hours. Accordingly, heavy to very heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai and Ramanathapuram districts and Puducherry and Karaikal area, it said.

Apart from declaring a holiday for schools, an official release also said that as per the directives of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, road patch works are underway across the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) areas at an estimated cost of Rs 21.80 crore.

As part of the northeast monsoon precautionary measures, road patch works are being carried out in zones 1 to 15 of the GCC areas using concrete and tar mixtures, it added.

The GCC also distributed 6,000 food packets to the rain-affected people in the Virugambakkam area on Wednesday morning.