84 trees fall in rain, two old buildings collapse

Kolkata: Heavy rainfall that lashed the city since Sunday night led to the caving in of a portion of two old buildings one of which was declared as "dangerous" by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. As many as 84 trees were uprooted in different parts of the city with wind blowing at an average speed of around 50 km/ hour thorough out the day.

The first report of the collapse came in from Christopher Road in Tangra when the rain water pipe of the 5th floor of an under-construction building went loose and accidentally fell upon a lady and her two daughters who were passing through the place. The three, identified as Asha Paul (47) and her two daughters Peu and Riya of Christopher Road. The three received minor injuries and were rushed to National Medical College and Hospital where they were provided treatment and later discharged.

The second incident of collapse was reported from Gopal Nagar Road under Alipore police station area. Portion of a roof top and and boundary wall of an old two storeyed dilapidated building declared dangerous by the KMC caved in at around 2 pm. No one was injured and the residents of the building were safely evacuated by the police and disaster management team.

In both the cases, team from the KMC rushed to the spot for necessary action.

Phone calls of trees uprooting flooded the control room of the civic body all thorough the day. Short Street, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, Sarat Bose Road, Jodhpur Park, Southern Avenue, Becharam Chatterjee Street contributed to the list.

"Our officials who were on duty immediately rushed to the spot to remove the trees. However, in some cases, the CESC electricity cables got entangled with the trees in a precarious way. The trees could be removed only after CESC snapped the power connection. This resulted in delay in some cases," Member Mayor in Council (Parks and Gardens) Debasish Kumar said.

There were no reports of any human injury. However, some vehicles were damaged after the trees came down.