Finally, Monsoon hits Kolkata

Kolkata: Monsoon hit Kolkata and South Bengal on Monday afternoon, giving a welcome relief to the people from the sweltering heat.

Officials of the Regional Meteorological Centre at Alipore said that even though temperature in different districts will go down, there will be no relief from the discomfort factor.

There were thunderclouds above West Bengal and the low pressure zone hovering over Bay of Bengal moved towards Bangladesh, which caused monsoon to enter West Bengal. As a result, there will be scattered rainfall in Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Sikkim.

Met officials said that in the next 48 hours, there will be heavy rainfall in Kolkata. There will be rain in North Bengal as well. Heavy rainfall has also been predicted in Howrah, Hooghly, South 24-Parganas, Nadia and east Midnapore.

Meanwhile, the state government has taken elaborate measures to combat heavy rain during monsoon. Chief Secretary Malay De will preside over a meeting on Tuesday, to take stock of the situation.

Senior officials of the Irrigation and Waterways department, Panchayat and Rural Development department, Public Works department, Agriculture and Disaster Management and Civil Defence department will attend the meeting.

State Irrigation minister Soumen Mahapatra had held a meeting with Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and discussed about the measures taken up by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) authorities.

Meanwhile, two people were killed and 42 injured, after being struck by lightning in Dooars in North Bengal. The victims are all tea garden workers. The injured were taken to a hospital where four workers were found to be critically injured. Two of them died late in the evening.

Monsoon had entered Kerala three days ahead of the scheduled date and it was expected that it will come to Bengal on time.

Kolkata woke up to an overcast sky on Monday morning. As monsoon hit the city in the afternoon, there was moderate to heavy shower in some pockets. The southern fringes in Kolkata received heavy rainfall.

Tarak Singh, Member, Mayor-in-Council (drainage), said all the pumps to clear water from the city roads are functioning and portable pumps have been kept ready to combat heavy shower.

He said if there is heavy shower, there may be waterlogging on the streets but its duration will be minimum. The underground pipes and gully pits have been cleared and desilted. Also, new underground pipes have been installed in many areas.

"On the whole, the duration of waterlogging will be minimum," Singh said.