At least 20 minibuses damaged due to cyclone

Kolkata: Several cars and buses were destroyed by Amphan including twenty minibuses that were parked in Golf Green and were badly damaged during the cyclone Amphan which had hit Kolkata on Wednesday.

As there are no place earmarked for the minibuses in Golf Green which can be used as the terminus, they are parked on the road. They have been grounded since March 24 when nationwide lockdown was clamped. After the state government refused to hike their fare, the owners left them on the street.

Before the cyclone Amphan hit the city, police officers and their counterpart in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) through the public address system requested the owners to remove their cars. As most of them stay in different areas, the owners could not get in touch with them. Branches of trees fell on at least 20 of them causing massive damage. Two of the vehicles were such badly affected that it would be difficult to repair them. When Amphan hit Kolkata, the wind speed was so high that the tyres of some buses burst with a deafening sound.

Senior officials of the Public Vehicles Department said at least 1,000 cars which were parked on the road got damaged. On Southern Avenue, at least 10 cars including two BMWs which were parked on the road got badly damaged. The windscreen of both the vehicles were smashed. A couple of vehicles that were parked in the courtyard of a housing complex in south Kolkata were damaged after branches of trees fell on them. Two long-distance buses which were parked on Chittaranjan Avenue were damaged when a tree fell on them. Swarnakamal Saha, president of Joint Council of Bus Syndicate said: "As there is lockdown the drivers and conductors are not sleeping in the vehicles which they normally do. In such cases, many of them would have died."