Cyclone Sitrang is expected to make landfall near Barisal in Bangladesh, over 250km from Calcutta, early on Tuesday, the Met office said on Sunday.
Under the influence of the storm, overcast and windy conditions and widespread rainfall are in store for Kolkata on Diwali.
A deep depression over the west-central and adjoining east-central Bay of Bengal intensified into Cyclone Sitrang on Sunday evening.
It lay centered over the same region at 5.30pm. It is expected to make landfall between Tin Kona and Sandwip, two islands in Bangladesh.
“Kolkata is likely to get rain from Monday afternoon. The intensity is expected to peak in the evening. The city is also likely to see winds blowing at 40-50kmph, with occasional gusts clocking 60kmph,” said G.K. Das, director, India Meteorological Department, Kolkata.
A Met bulletin on Sunday did not include Kolkata in the list of places likely to get heavy rain. But Met officials said some places in the city might get heavy rain on Monday.
A special high tide in the Hooghly will keep the water level higher than the usual high tide level over the next two to three days. That could lead to a longer duration of waterlogging if the city gets heavy rain, officials of the port trust and the civic body said.
The Met bulletin on Sunday stuck to the earlier forecast, saying South and North24-Parganas are likely to bearthe brunt of the system.
“A cyclone has three major impacts — rain, winds and storm surge. All three are likely in South and North 24-Parganas,” said Das.
Parts of Howrah, Hooghly and East and West Midnaporeare also likely to get heavy rain on Monday, as is Nadia on Tuesday.
Preparations
A phenomenon called the Perigee Spring Tide has kept the city’s administration on the edge.
“The water level rises during high tide through the year, but during the Perigee High Tide, which started on Sunday and will continue till Wednesday or Thursday, the water level goes higher than the normal high tide level,”said an official of the Calcutta Port Trust.
Since the peak will be higher, the time required for the level to come back to normal would be more than usual.
“We will have to keep the sluice gates closed for a longer duration because of this, which is why the water on the streets could take some time to recede,” said an official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
The KMC has kept over 580 portable pumps in various waterlogging-prone pockets.
The state fire and emergency services department has stationed around 46 teams across the city and the districts, an official of the department said.
