City paralysed: Firhad Hakim cites swollen Hooghly River, backflow for waterlogging

Kolkata: With torrential rain paralysing the city on Tuesday, leaving its streets submerged and services disrupted, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) found itself grappling with a crisis of “unprecedented” scale as Mayor Firhad Hakim admitted that the drainage system came under enormous stress, drawing comparisons with the devastating floods of 1978.

Several key neighbourhoods reported extreme downpours: Ballygunge logged 295 mm, Mukundapur 280 mm, Gariahat 262 mm, Jadavpur 258 mm and Alipore 240 mm, according to KMC gauges. Most southern parts of the city, such as Lake Gardens, Jodhpur Park, Ballygunge, among others and parts of East Kolkata, witnessed heavy waterlogging

Hakim, who spent much of Tuesday morning at the civic headquarters monitoring the situation from the control room along with Tarak Singh, Member Mayor-In-Council (MMIC), Drainage department, later visited Chetla, where he was seen clearing plastic and bottles from roadside drains with his own hands. “I have not seen rain like this since 1978,” the Mayor said.

Explaining the challenges, Hakim noted that while KMC workers were pumping water into drainage canals, the canals were unable to discharge it into the Hooghly as the river itself was swollen. “Water from neighbouring states has raised the river level. So even when we release water from the canals, it flows back. That is the biggest problem,” he said.

The Mayor added that all lock gates were opened to speed up discharge, but backflow continued. To make matters worse, a high tide in the Hooghly around 1.30 pm on Tuesday further blocked drainage. “If the tide recedes, we hope to release water into the river by evening,” he said, cautioning that fresh spells of rain could undo the progress.