Myanmar earthquake shakes up Kolkata

People came out from their houses and offices while passengers tried to get off from running buses. People were also seen running away from the Metro subways and tall buildings of Salt Lake’s Sector V. However, there are no reports of heavy casualty or loss of life after the quake.

People from most of the business destinations of the city — Dalhousie, Park Street, Sector V, Park Circus, College Street, Shyambazar came out on to the streets, while the police started vacating office buildings, multiplexes and markers. Worried family members were putting their best effort to contact their relatives, but cell-phone connectivity had gone absolutely haywire.

The earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale hit Central Myanmar that caused the tremors in the city along with Guwahati, Patna and some places in Bangladesh. The epicentre was barely 500 kilometres away from the Indo-Myanmar border.

Indian Meteorological Department informed that the epicentre of the earthquake was at a point 190 kilometre south of Myanmar’s Mandalay city. In another measurement, the epicentre was said to be approximately 19 kilometres west of Chauk town. The depth of the earthquake was 90 kilometres from the ground level.

The timing of the tremor was slightly different in Kolkata in comparison to other districts. The quake was felt at around 4.05 pm in Kolkata, but it was 4.08 pm in most of the district townships and cities in North Bengal. The wall of some houses in the Kolkata, Salt Lake and city outskirts developed cracks.

Metro services were completely disrupted after the tremor and passengers in the tunnel were taken out by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to safety. The underground stations were evacuated as people were busy rushing towards the exit. The RPF personnel managed to help them come out of the subway smoothly. People who were waiting in Howrah and Sealdah railway stations also came out while some trains were stopped on the tracks.

North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, Burdwan, Murshidabad, East and West Midnapore and Purulia are some of the districts in South Bengal where people felt heavy tremors. Tremors were felt in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Malda as well as South and North Dinajpur too.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was on her visit to North Bengal for the past two days and was on the way back to Kolkata when the earthquake took place. 

At Nabanna, Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee and Home Secretary Malay Dey were busy meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on project PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation) when the tremors happened. Director General of Police, Surajit Kar Purakayastha and senior officials came downstairs from the Nabanna building while the ministers present there, Indranil Sen and Javed Ahmed Khan were still at their office during the tremor. Holiday was declared soon after the tremors.