Intense showers that continued for around two hours left multiple roads in the city flooded, slowed traffic and inconvenienced commuters. The rain stopped around 3pm but roads remained waterlogged even in the evening.

Waterlogging

Stretches of Strand Road, Central Avenue, Shakespeare Sarani, BB Ganguly Street, Phears Lane and Keshab Chandra Sen Lane were waterlogged even at 7pm, about four hours after it stopped raining, an officer in the traffic control room of Kolkata Police said.

A stretch of Woodburn Park was under water even at 9.30pm.

The main gate of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on SN Banerjee Road was submerged in water. Sources in the KMC said Thanthania, Muktaram Babu Street and the stretch of JL Nehru Road under the Park Street flyover were waterlogged for a long time in the afternoon.

Stretches of Humayun Place and Corporation Place in Esplanade also went under water.

Tarak Singh, the mayoral council member in charge of the KMC’s drainage department, said the lock gates of the drainage channels that open into the Hooghly were shut between 11am and 3pm because of high tide in the river.

“It rained heavily between 1pm and 3pm. The lock gates were shut during that period (because of high tide in the Hooghly). Besides, the volume of rain was huge. It will take some time for the water to recede,” he said.

Several roads in Salt Lake, Sector V, New Town and stretches of VIP Road were also waterlogged for some time after the rain stopped. In Salt Lake, the intersection of Broadway and EM Bypass, near Paribesh Bhavan, was flooded.

Municipal workers opened the covers of gully pits and manholes along a 100m stretch of Broadway to drain out the water.

Slow traffic

Shyambazar-bound vehicles on Central Avenue moved very slowly for a long time. “The worst phase was between 5.45pm and 6.30pm, when traffic volume increased after office hours. The tail of the snarls reached Yogayog Bhavan,” said an officer in the traffic department of the city police.

Many people who were on the roads when it was raining said the intensity of the showers was such that the registration numbers of the cars in front were not visible.

Howrah-bound vehicles on Strand Road, too, moved at a snail’s pace because of waterlogging in front of North Port police station. The water had receded by the time the evening rush started.

“Traffic was slow on Bidhan Sarani, too,” said a Calcutta University student. It took him more than an hour to reach Shyambazar from College Street by bus. The distance is normally covered in half an hour.

Commuter woes

Many Calcuttans were stuck in cars and buses, while others could not step out of their homes or offices, or had to wait at Metro stations for the rain to stop.

It took 20 minutes to reach Minto Park from Rowland Road around 4.30pm, said a woman. The distance is usually covered in half that time. “The car was barely moving,” she said.

Large stretches of Sarat Bose Road and AJC Bose Road were waterlogged, she said. “Half the wheels of the cars were under water,” she said.

A man on his way from south Calcutta to Chandni Chowk around 2pm said it took him about 45 minutes to cross Shakespeare Sarani, from its Park Circus end to Chowringee Road.

In Salt Lake, the Wipro intersection, College More and the Godrej Waterside crossing went under water. Somdyuti Chatterjee, who works in Sector V, said she had to pay a rickshaw-puller Rs 100 to take her from College More to the Wipro crossing, a distance of 1.5km.

Trees

Reports of trees toppling or branches falling camefrom 10 places includingSarat Bose Road, Lee Roadand Ramkamal Street inKidderpore.

“A tree fell on Sarat Bose Road, near the Lakshmi Narayan temple. It blocked a portion of the road,” said Ashim Bose, the local councillor. “A tree also fell on Lee Road.”

A Kolkata Municipal Corporation official said a branch of a tree was hanging over an electric cable on Ramkamal Street. “We got the branch removed,” he said.