Chennai, Oct 16 (Reporter) The Depression over the Bay moved west-northwestwards at a speed of 12 kmph during the last six hours and will cross the North Tamil Nadu coast near Chennai early tomorrow, even as rains abated in Red Alert sounded Chennai and its surrounding districts since last night. After a day of heavy downpour, the dip in intensity of rains since 9.00 PM last night, which led to stagnated water receding in inundated areas of Chennai and suburbs, was attributed to lack of cloud cover as the system moved slowly and headed towards North Tamil Nadu. Though some of the areas experienced mild showers and intermittent drizzles in the morning, the rains completely stopped, except for a brief spell or two in some pockets. The IMD in a bulletin on Wednesday said the depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal moved west-northwestwards with a speed of 12 kmph during the past six hours and lay centred over the same region about 360 km east-southeast of Chennai, 390 km east of Puducherry and 450 km south-east of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. It is likely to move west-northwestwards and cross North Tamil Nadu-South Andhra Pradesh coasts between Puducherry and Nellore, close to Chennai early tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the people of Chennai and suburbs heaved a sigh of relief as extremely heavy rains, as predicted by Met office, following which a Red alert was issued today, is unlikely to occur. According to private weather bloggers, thoughthe Depression is expected to cross over Chennai, the convergence of winds will be north of the crossing area and the people of Chennai can relax a bit. "The extreme rains today from the Depression is not going to happen for Chennai. Normal rains may occur. As the convergence has shifted to South Andhra Pradesh", they said in the social media. They said there might some pull effect rains from Depression once it moves in land around October 18-20 in Chennai and those will be normal manageable rains. They also said massive rainfall was recorded in the last two days in Chennai and Tiruvallur districts which was close to 30 cms in some locations in the city, especially in northern suburbs. Meanwhile, as the rains abated since last night due to lack of cloud cover, stagnated rain water has receded in several parts of the city, though some of the suburbs continued to remain in thick sheets of water. Officials said relief works were on in rain-battered areas and close to three lakh people were provided food by the government and the Chennai Corporation officials and also in the Relief centres, where people rescued from low-lying and flood hit areas were evacuated and housed. Normal life, which was badly affected yesterday, limped back today, though the government has declared a holiday for schools and colleges for the second day today, in Chennai and its adjoining districts of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu and other districts, while schools alone were declared holiday in six other districts, as the Met office had forecast extremely heavy rains for the day, in excess of 20 cms. Though private bloggers said there would not be extremely heavy rains, the Red alert was not yet withdrawn by the Met office so far. The Madras High Court and the Regional Passport Office, Chennai have also declared a holiday for the day today in view of heavy rains. The government also announced a public holiday for various departments and PSUs, except for essential departments. The Chennai Metro Rail started operating normal services since today morning as the rains had subsided. Yesterday's heavy rains also brought copious inflow into the reservoirs in and around Chennai which serves as the main drinking water sources for the city...////...