Rainwater receded from most parts of the city but some pockets remained inundated till late on Saturday in the aftermath of Friday’s rain that accompanied Cyclone Dana.

Parts of Paharpur Road in the city’s Port area, Baghajatin Station Road in the southeast, parts of Sursuna, Banamali Naskar Road, Bagpota in Behala and some stretches in Lake Gardens remained waterlogged till late in the afternoon.

Parts of Rajabagan in Garden Reach, Haridevpur, Joka and Paschim Barisha had stretches that remained waterlogged till late afternoon on Saturday, police said.

“Some of these areas had close to ankle-deep water till late afternoon,” a police officer in Lalbazar said.

Mayor Firhad Hakim blamed “abnormal” rainfall on Friday for the inundation.

“What happened yesterday was abnormal rainfall. In some parts, the rainfall was between 130 and 198mm. Our drainage mechanism is equipped to take out up to 20mm of water in an hour,” Hakim said. “So ideally, it should have taken 10 hours for the accumulated water to drain. But in most parts of the city, the water drained out faster.”

But in several pockets, it didn’t.

Draining out water takes longer if the outlet channels are clogged, because of the accumulation of too much water and also callously dumped rubbish.

“Residents of a couple of stretches in Lokenath Para and Jadav Ghosh Lane in Sarsuna, in wards 126 and 127, were forced to wade through water on Saturday,” said Sarsuna resident Keya Ghosh.

Hakim admitted while most parts were cleared of rainwater, some low-lying pockets continued to face challenges.

“Some low-lying pockets including areas under wards 127 (parts of Sarsuna), 128 (pockets of Behala) and 141 (Badartala and Rajabagan in Garden Reach) have remained inundated,” Hakim said. “There are drainage issues. We are working on it.”

Around 8pm on Friday, Thanthania, MG Road, Bidhan Sarani, the Patipukur underpass in the north, Elgin Road, Hospital Road, Sarat Bose Road, Camac Street and the intersection of Loudon Street and Park Street in the south were flooded after a fresh spell of rain in the evening.

According to the readings at the drainage pumping stations of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Jodhpur Park received 190mm of rain between 4am and 8pm on Friday. Ballygunge got 152mm and Kalighat 127mm of rain during the same period.

Many other places in Calcutta received well over 100mm in this period.
Most of these places saw water drain out by the morning. KMC officials said teams of workers from the drainage department had worked overnight.

“It rained till late on Friday and water from adjoining states, including Jharkhand and Odisha, kept the Hooghly full even during low tide. I don’t have a magic wand to drain out water in a flash. It takes time,” Hakim said. “Abnormal conditions give rise to abnormal situations. Even Florida was flooded recently.”

KMC officials said drains and channels had been desilted before the monsoon and the result was visible. Rainwater that earlier took many hours to recede has now gone down in a few hours, they said.

“We have cleared 14 lakh tonnes of silt from the drains and canals. Water has remained in a few low-lying areas and it will be cleared.”