December showers sink city pockets that went down under in monsoon – Times of India

Kolkata News

With the city receiving as much as 50mm rain by 6am, localities in low-lying pockets were the worst-affected. Photo: AP

KOLKATA: Untimely downpour returned to haunt citizens in large parts of the city with many waking up on Monday morning to find their neighbourhoods inundated after night-long rain. With the city receiving as much as 50mm rain by 6am, localities in low-lying pockets were the worst-affected. A high tide in the Hooghly didn’t help matters as rainwater could not be drained out due to the closure of lock gates along the Hooghly.
Belgachhia, Maniktala, Beliaghata, Chittaranjan Avenue, MG Road, Amherst Street, Camac Street, Alipore, Kidderpore, Behala, Jodhpur Park and large areas off EM Bypass remained waterlogged for several hours on Monday morning.
Though stormwater started receding from the city core by late afternoon as the rain stopped, residents in some parts of Behala and EM Bypass had no respite from waterlogging till late in the evening.
Patients, doctors and staffers in hospitals at Mukundapur to the east of Bypass were also reminded of the nightmare through monsoon when the access road was completely inundated. Residents in parts of Nayabad, Mukundapur and Patuli were stranded due to severe waterlogging in front of their homes. Subir Mukherjee, a resident of Nayabad, had to cancel an appointment with his dentist at a private hospital on Monday morning. “I tried to book an app cab for more than an hour but none agreed to come to the doorstep,” Mukherjee said.
Residents of Thakurpukur in Behala had to wade through knee-deep water which remained stagnant till Monday night because of a poor drainage network.
Similarly, residents of Muktarambabu Street had to stay indoors as they didn’t want to wade through knee-deep water as the entire street was waterlogged since early morning. According to a KMC drainage department official, stormwater took several hours to recede from many north and central Kolkata neighbourhoods due to the presence of a high tide in the early morning. Arvind Jaiswal, a resident of Muktarambabu Street, decided to skip office after large-scale flooding of the area.
Kolkata Traffic Police had a tough outing on Monday with several arterial roads in the city reporting ankle-deep water. The worst-affected stretches included Diamond Harbour Road near CMRI Hospital and Park Circus seven-point crossing, along with Amherst street and Central Avenue where traffic slowed down considerably. Other roads that were waterlogged included MG Road, Eden Hospital, Lalbazar Street, Hyde Road, CGR Road, Park Circus connector, parts of EM Bypass, Rabindra Sarani and BB Ganguly Street.
In Salt Lake, New Town and Rajarhat, residents had to bear with another round of waterlogging. Some of the worst areas included the stretch of Haldiram junction on VIP Road and the stretch leading towards Chinar Park in Rajarhat. A school bus got stuck in the stormwater for a couple of hours on VIP Road near Haldiram. Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said they had operated additional pumps to flush out stormwater.

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Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/december-showers-sink-city-pockets-that-went-down-under-in-monsoon/articleshow/88131259.cms