In its attempt to mitigate the water scarcity in the southern Indian city of Chennai, a special train was deployed by authorities which carried around 2.5 million litres of water from the state's Vellore district.

The train reached Chennai's Villivakkam station at around noon today (July 12) after departing Jolarpet area of Vellore.

The special train consisted of 50 bogies, carrying around 55,000 litres of water each.

Visuals showed the train being flagged off from Jolarpet station and moving towards its destination in Chennai, which is currently battling one of its worst water crisis.

According to reports, the metro city is facing a deficit of at least 200 million litres of water daily. Its four main reservoirs-Cholavaram, Redhills, Chembarambakkam and Poondi- have almost run dry.

Commentators have pointed at several factors, such as unplanned development, inadequate urban planning and deficient monsoon in previous years as the major reasons behind the misery.