Rains bring respite to city

Heavy rain accompanied by squall lashed the city on Thursday afternoon giving a sigh of relief to the residents. The officials of Alipore Meteorological Office said the rain was the fallout of a low pressure zone. They said monsoon was expected in the state in the next 48 hours.The rain brought much relief to the citizens.

There had been sultry weather with high discomfort factor for the past few days.  The weather office predicted moderate to heavy rainfall in the city along with North and South 24 Parganas. There may be very heavy rainfall in Darjeeling and its neighbourhood in the next 24 hours.

Vast areas in city’s IT hub, Sector V was inundated following the rain, causing massive traffic jam. There was very heavy rain for around half an hour to 40 minutes. There was knee deep water in some area off Chinar Park in Rajarhat. A spokesman of Rajarhat Gopalpur Municipality said water logging was due to the absence of any sewer line. He said vast area adjoining Anupama housing complex also submerged because of the rain.

Some low lying areas in the city were waterlogged. Some lanes and by lanes in Kidderpore were waterlogged. There was waterlogging in some parts of central and South Kolkata like Samsul Huda Road, Ripon Street and its neighouhood.

Tarak Singh, member, drainage and sewerage, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the water receded within an hour after the rain stopped. He said all the pumps had been working and if there was very heavy rainfall some roads might get waterlogged but water would recede fast. He said because of cleaning and upgradation of the under sewer lines in South and North Kolkata, there had been no water in city’s main waterlogging prone areas like Amherst Street, Sukia Street, areas surrounding Aksbani Bhavan and Rabindra Sadan.