Large parts of north and central Kolkata went under water following a spell of heavy rain on Saturday afternoon, throwing traffic haywire for many hours afterwards.
Between 2pm and 3pm on Saturday, Thanthania received 72mm of rain; Maniktala received 66mm of rain; Chingrighata received 55mm of rain; and Palmer Bridge received 36mm, according to a report prepared by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Mominpore received 31mm of rain between 3pm and 4pm. The most intense spell of downpour took place between 2pm and 4pm and it hardly rained after that.
The rain was not uniform. The rain in south Kolkata was not comparable to what north and central Kolkata witnessed.
The CMC report said that Ballygunge received 17mm of rain between 2pm and 4pm while no rainfall was recorded in Kalighat and Jodhpur. Chetla received only 1mm of rain.
The Met office recorded around 50mm of rain in Alipore. The observatory at Dum Dum recorded 0.1mm.
Commuters wade through a waterlogged Colootola Street in north Kolkata on Saturday afternoon. Pradip Sanyal
The rain was attributed to the formation of local thunderclouds. “There was sufficient heating on Friday and Saturday. The heat and moisture combined to form thunderclouds,” said a Met official.
Central Avenue, Amherst Street, College Street, Bidhan Sarani, Colootala Street, MG Road and Rabindra Sarani were under water for many hours afterwards. Some stretches of these roads had knee-deep water while some other stretches had ankle-deep water.
A police officer said CR Avenue and MG Road were waterlogged even at 7.30pm.
As the roads, and in some places the footpaths, became inundated the speed of vehicles slowed down.
Huge snarls were witnessed on Central Avenue, College Street, APC Road, MG Road and Bidhan Sarani, among others. Everything moved at snail’s pace along most roads in north and central till about three hours after the rain stopped.
Tarak Singh, the mayoral council member in charge of the CMC’s drainage department, said because of high tide in the Hooghly, the sluice gates were closed from noon. “Water has yet to recede from many roads in north and central Kolkata. We could open the sluicegates only at 6pm,” Singh said.
Sunday is also likely to see similar spells of rain, according to the Met forecast.