Several neighbourhoods in southeast Calcutta’s Mukundapur were flooded following Saturday morning’s rain, with the water inundating at least two hospitals in the area.
The rain was short but intense, said a resident.
AMRI Hospitals Mukundapur and Peerless Hospital in Panchasayar were flooded.
There was shin-deep water in the road outside both the gates of AMRI Mukundapur.
The ground floor parking, the steps leading into the hospital building and the open area inside the hospital’s premises were all inundated.
The campus of Peerless Hospital, too, was flooded.
An official of the hospital said the water from the road had entered the hospital premises.
“It was a terrible situation. We called several places to inform the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) that our hospital has been flooded. Owing to Viswakarma Puja, the KMC was late in operating the pumps. The water receded in the afternoon,” said an official of Peerless Hospital.
A senior official of the KMC said he did not know whether the pumps were run late.
“It could be that, unlike other days, there was some delay in running the pumps because of Viswakarma Puja. But Peerless (hospital) is also having a lot of construction on their premises. The water may have been logged because of their own drainage issue,” said the official.
Many Kolkatans in other parts of the city were unaware that it had rained heavily in parts of southeast Kolkata on Saturday. “It rained heavily for about an hour. The rain was very intense,” said Subir Dey, a resident of Mukundapur.
The KMC’s drainage pumping station at Kamdahari in Garia recorded 53mm of rain between 11am and noon on Saturday.
Pumping station
A drainage pumping station that promises to ease the waterlogging problem in Behala’s Shakuntala Park and neighbouring areas will be inaugurated on Wednesday.
With the commissioning of the station, the rainwater will be drained out into the Begor canal using mechanical pumps.
The waterlogged roads will be cleared faster, said a KMC official. The drainage lines of the KMC are inclined towards the canals from under the roads.
In places that lack drainage pumping stations, the water flows into the canals under the natural pull of gravity. The rainwater of the Behala area finally flows into the Hooghly via the canals.
“We found that the natural flow of rainwater through the sewer lines was very slow. Roads remained waterlogged for a long time. Therefore, we built a drainage pumping station,” said a senior engineer of the KMC.
The mechanical pumps in the station will suck the water from the sewer lines with greater force and the lines will be emptied faster. The water on the roads above will also recede faster.
“People living in and around Shakuntala Park; along Beni Master Lane, Shyamsundar Palli, Satgram and Sholofoot, among others will benefit in Ward 128,” said the ward councillor Partha Sarkar. A CMC official said parts of Ward 129 would also benefit once the drainage pumping station starts functioning.
The construction had started about two years back, said the official.