PM Narendra Modi has directed the Union Home Ministry to release Rs 450 crore, the second instalment to Tamil Nadu for cyclone relief, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said here on Thursday. Following an aerial survey and a hi-level meeting with Chief Minister M K Stalin at the Secretariat, Singh said the first instalment of Rs 450 crore had been released earlier to the state. 

“PM Modi is distressed by loss of lives in TN due to rain, floods,” he said. Since the problem of urban floods has become repetitive in Chennai in recent years, the Government of India has approved a central funding of Rs 500 crore for urban flood management activities, he said.