The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red warning for heavy and very heavy rain for Kolkata, and also confirmed late evening on Saturday that cyclonic storm Remal has already formed as predicted.
The cyclone is set to have landfall in between Sagar in West Bengal, India, and Khepupara, Bangladesh, as per an IMD release, but IMD has also admitted that “the guidance from various numerical models is indicating crossing over to Bangladesh”.
Despite the cyclone set to have landfall about 150km away from Kolkata , the city is likely to receive copious amounts of rain , expected to lead to high inundation and flooding of low-lying areas. The city is likely to face waterlogging in noon and evening as the lock gates, according to KMC, will remain closed in between 1.30pm and 6pm.
IMD release says that “heavy (7 -11cm) to very heavy rain (12-20 cm) at a few places over North and South Parganas, East Midnapore, Kolkata, Howrah and Hooghly districts with extremely heavy rain more than 20 cm) at one or two places is very likely over North and South 24 parganas and East Midnapore districts” under the heading ‘red warning’.
Along with the rain the city may receive cyclonic circulation .
“We have issued a red warning for Kolkata. The cyclonic weather and rain may start from morning and continue throughout the day and part of next day but the strong surface wind of 70 to 80km per hour is likely towards evening” said an expert from IMD Alipore, subsequently confirmed by a 9pm release.
“There will be minimum water logging even in case of 40mm rain per hour as we now have the capacity of draining out 38mm rain per hour with our 408 pumps operating in 76 stations. However there may be water logging if the lock gates cannot be opened due to high tide factor” claimed Tarak Singh, mayor in council, in charge of drainage at KMC.