Kolkata: Around 8,000 houses were damaged with water entering in low-lying areas due to the incessant rainfall in the past 48 hours in south Bengal districts due to the formation of a depression.
There was also a report of evacuating around 38,000 people to flood shelters, school and college buildings while 26,000 people were given shelter at 150 relief camps that were set up in the past two days.
However, the weather is likely to improve from Thursday morning with no forecast of rainfall in south Bengal districts apart from in one or two places of Purulia and Bankura. There could be thundershower with lightning at one or two places in north Bengal districts.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday took stock of the situation holding a meeting with Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and other concerned officers as there was a red warning of a heavy to very heavy rainfall in districts including East and West Midnapore.
There was a prediction of heavy rainfall in Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, Bankura, Jhargram, Purulia, Birbhum, East and West Burdwan and East and West Midnapore.
Kolkata received an average 100 mm rainfall. The water, however, receded quickly with a series of steps taken by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) apart from a few places. With Bhowanipore going for the by poll on Thursday, necessary steps were taken to ensure that the water receded fast mainly from the low lying areas including Northern Park area and Raja Santosh Roy Road.
Firhad Hakim, Chairman, Board of Administrator of KMC, said: "Kolkata has received around 100 mm rainfall. There is nothing much to worry as the water would recede within three to four hours during low tide. Thirteen pumps are in operation at Ballygunge Pumping station and additional 10 heavy pumps are being brought from Howrah".
There was "extremely heavy rainfall" at Haldia (more than 20 cm) while areas including Mohanpur, Kharagpur, Midnapore, Kalaikunda, Diamond Harbour and Sagar Island received "very heavy rainfall" between (12 to 20 cm). There was "heavy rainfall" (between 7 to 11 cm) in Howrah, Contai, Jhargram and Kakdwip in the past 24 hours till Wednesday evening. There was even squall wind in Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore, east and West Burdwan.
There were reports of water entering the low lying, riverine and coastal areas including Canning, Kakdwip and Patharpratima in South 24-Parganas. Major parts of areas including Bhagabanpur and Patashpur in East Midnapore and keshpur in West Midnapore got inundated.
Officers from the control rooms of both the Disaster Management Department at Nabanna and Irrigation department at Jal Sampad Bhavan have been constantly monitoring the situation and taking immediate steps as and when required.