A resident of Elgin Road who had removed his Honda City from its usual parking spot to keep it safe from waterlogging, failed to see the dangers lurking above the new parking spot.

His car was smashed by a tree that fell near the Elgin Road post office. The tree brought down with it two lamp posts and a billboard.

The car remained trapped under them till late on Monday evening, said Javed Majid, the car’s owner. He usually parked his car a few yards away near his home.

Asked about the delay, local councillor Ashim Kumar Bose said teams from the
electrical department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and disaster management personnel of Kolkata Police reached the spot at a gap of “30-40 minutes”.

“The DMG team came around 1pm but could not remove the tree because
electrical wires were entangled with its branches. The KMC’s electrical department team was busy at another site at that time. By the time they came, the DMG team had left for another spot,” said Bose.

The councillor said he got the electrical wires snapped and the branches removed so the thoroughfare was cleared for traffic. “But the tree trunk and the electrical poles need special machines to be removed,” said Bose.

“I hope some government agency retrieves my car on Tuesday,” said Majid.

In case a vehicle is trapped under a tree, personnel attached to the disaster management group, KMC, and if required, the local power utility service provider has to work together to retrieve it, a police officer said.