Kolkata: With several parts of the city waterlogged after hours of heavy rainfall, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) worked on war footing to drain the stagnant water while clearing uprooted trees from the city streets.
Several areas in the city saw waterlogging after incessant rain on Sunday night. Trees were uprooted in at least 70 places while several areas in both South and North Kolkata got waterlogged.
Sources said during Cyclone ‘Remal’ late on Sunday night, several trees got uprooted in at least 70 places across the city blocking the main carriageways, including Ganesh Avenue, Shakespeare Sarani, Park Street area.
Vast areas of North and South Kolkata got waterlogged due to the heavy rainfall. Several roads in Alipore, parts of Park Circus, Dhakuria, Ballygunge and a few other places in South Kolkata, including Lake Gardens, were waterlogged. Water was also accumulated in the areas like College Street area, Thanthania Kalibari, Vivekananda Road in North Kolkata. In several of these areas it was observed that KMC had deployed teams to drain the stagnant water using drainage pumps. This apart, teams from the parks and squares department were deployed with heavy machinery to clear the uprooted trees.
Prior to the landfall of the cyclone, Mayor Firhad Hakim had conducted a meeting with all borough officials and gave necessary instructions to ensure in the case the city is impacted heavily by the storm, normalcy in restoring services can be done on a war footing. Leaves of workers in crucial departments of drainage, parks and squares, building, lighting, roads, among others, have been cancelled.
According to an official of the civic body drainage department, as soon as the rain receded, stagnant water receded by late evening in most areas in the city. The official said that the drainage work that was undertaken by KMC showed the results.