After two-day sunny hiatus, monsoon returns to Kolkata with all guns blazing

Kolkata: A sudden heavy spell of rain lashed the city on Tuesday afternoon, disrupting normal lives of people, as well as paralysing the traffic movement in various parts. As many as 5 persons were reportedly killed due to lightning in the state, in the past 24 hours.

Apart from the city, districts like North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah also received thundershower on Tuesday. There may be scattered rainfall in the city and its outskirts in the next 24 hours, as predicted by the Alipore Met office.

A full-grown tree fell on a car, a matador and a bike on Prince Anwar Shah Road, creating a huge traffic snarl in the area in the afternoon. No casualty or injury has been reported in the incident. Senior police officers and a disaster management team rushed to the spot immediately after the incident and the traffic movement in the area was diverted. A middle-aged man, who had parked his bike in the area moments before the tree fell, had a narrow escape. Attracted by an alarm raised by the local residents, the bike owner fled from the spot.

All the three vehicles were crushed under the branches of the tree. The disaster management team swung into action to clear the road. According to a senior officer of the city police, the West bound traffic was diverted through Golf Club Road, while the East bound traffic was diverted through Lake Gardens Bridge. The situation was brought under control within a couple of hours, the officer said.

Moderate to heavy rainfall which lasted more than half an hour in the afternoon, left several stretches of the city inundated. There was waterlogging on MG Road, Strand Road, Tollygunge Circular Road and some stretches of EM Bypass for sometime, until the drainage department officials of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) cleared the accumulated water from the roads. However, traffic movement in major thoroughfares remained slow after rain lashed the city.

Alipore Met office said that there may some more rain in the city in the next 24 hours, as a low pressure trough has been formed over Eastern parts of Bihar. Some North Bengal districts will also receive moderate rainfall in the next 24 hours.

People in the city had been seeing sultry and discomfort weather since Tuesday morning. As the day progressed, the city's sky became overcast at around 1.30 pm and it started raining at around 2.55 pm. The rain brought some relief to the people as it brought down the temperature by a few notches.