Heavy rainfall causes major traffic congestion in Kolkata

Kolkata: Massive traffic congestion took place on Thursday afternoon across the city owing to the heavy rainfall throughout the day.

Since Thursday morning, due to heavy downpour, rain water accumulated in almost every part of the city. Apart from Kolkata, several roads in Salt Lake and New Town also got waterlogged owing to the intermittent but heavy downpour. Due to the waterlogged situation, movement of vehicles became slower creating traffic congestion. Major areas in north Kolkata and alongside the VIP Road were under water leading to major inconvenience for daily commuters. However, the accumulated water was cleared quickly in the evening after the rainfall frequency decreased. However, the Kolkata Police Traffic Control claimed that no significant waterlogging took place.

In the city, several low-lying areas, especially in north Kolkata, witnessed waterlogging. KMC officials, however, claimed that the water did not remain stagnant for long but got drained within an hour. A drainage department worker said that due to the recent works carried out KMC could successfully tackle the issue of waterlogging.

It was learnt that the KMC is soon to receive the Rs 500 crore which the Centre was supposed to provide for the flood management system. This money would be utilised to modernise the drainage pumping stations and for dredging the city’s outfall canals to rid the city of waterlogging. Civic body officials are hopeful that it may help solve the issue to a large extent. Further, this year, KMC had sent an estimate of more than Rs 76 crore for refurbishment of a century old brick sewer to prevent waterlogging in certain areas in South Kolkata.