People wade through a flooded street after heavy rain across Chennai in southern India

The southern Indian city of Chennai, once known with sobriquet the 'Detroit of Asia', is facing the fury of the northeast monsoon after a gap of six years again.

The torrential rains and the subsequent flooding in India's manufacturing hub are blamed on rapid urbanization of the coastal city that houses 4.9 million inhabitants, global automakers and blue chip IT firms.

The third largest city in India has registered 26 percent excess rains since Oct. 1. The incessant rains, started on Nov. 4, have claimed 12 lives, said provincial state disaster management minister KKSSR Ramachandran.

The state-funded meteorological department has predicted further rains for the next 24 hours and warned against the low pressure area on the Bay of Bengal, which is likely pass by the coast this evening (Nov. 11).

In the wake of the forecast, the provincial government of Tamil Nadu has extended the holiday for schools and colleges in the state. Flight services at the Chennai International Airport on the outskirts are moving at a snail's pace. On Nov. 10, nearly 10 services were canceled.

Hit by non-stop rainfall, waterlogging has inundated large parts of the residential areas and commercial hubs. Traffic diversions and closure of major subways have crippled normal life.

Though the low pressure formation has lost its intensity, there is fear that the city may see the floods of the scale it experienced in 2015. In the record rain in the wettest November in the century, 400 people were killed.

The second spell of rains in India's manufacturing hub within a gap of six years is beyond the means of auto majors, blue chips companies and their employees can ask for.

Starting with Ford Motor Co. in 1995, global auto majors have been flocking to Chennai to set up plants to cater to the domestic and export markets. Currently, Hyundai Motor Co., BMW AG, Daimler AG, Renault-Nissan Alliance, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Yamaha Motor Co. operate their facilities in the city along with major domestic manufacturers.

Along with global auto majors came an array of auto component makers who built a world-class production platform in the city.

In the aerospace industry, Chennai is home to Boeing, Flatirons Solutions, and Rockwell Collins and IT majors like Capgemini and Cognizant Technology Solutions and Tata Consultancy Services have presence in the city.

When the record north-east monsoons hit the city in 2015 auto majors like Ford, BMW and Renault India, and others halted production and parted ways with night shifts. On their part, IT firms shifted their employees elsewhere to work or asked other centers to pitch in.

Ford, Renault-Nissan, Daimler India and Yamaha incurred a cumulative production loss of 15 percent, and additional bucks at the vendors-end, according Indian media reports.

A conservative account found that insurance companies alone were forced to shell out nearly $ 200 million as compensation.

According to the civic administration, over 300 lakes, tanks and canals disappeared in the past decades and their spaces were illegally occupied by more 1.5 lakh constructions.

The sea, rivers, streams, lakes and wetland made Chennai what it is today. Now they are causing problems for it.