30mm to 70mm downpour in 24 hours inundates Kolkata pockets

KOLKATA: Overnight rain, brought by the combination of a low pressure and a monsoon trough extending over Bengal, left several pockets of the city waterlogged. The rainfall that the city received over the past 24 hours ranged between 30mm and 70mm on Tuesday. Met office predicted more spells of rain on Wednesday and Thursday.A low pressure over Madhya Pradesh as well as a trough extending from this low pressure to Bangladesh over Bengal have triggered the heavy rain. Sources said this dual system still exists, causing intense moisture over Kolkata and parts of South Bengal."This weather system will continue to trigger rain till Thursday. But the intensity of showers is expected to be lower that what we experienced on Monday and Tuesday," said GK Das director (weather) at Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata.According to the Met office, Alipore recorded 71mm of rain whereas the areas like Mominpur received 58mm of rain. Some of the areas in the southern parts of the city, which were inundated after heavy rains, included Southern Avenue, Jodhpur Park, Ballygunge, Mominpore, Behala, Joka, Chetla, Kalighat and Patuli. Among the north-eastern parts of the city that received heavy rains included Maniktala, Ultadanga, Palmerbazar (Beliaghata), Thanthania, Chittaranjan Avenue, Topsia and Dhapa. According to the member, mayor-in-council overseeing the KMC sewerage and drainage department Tarak Singh, all heavy duty pumps at the civic body's major drainage pumping stations worked overnight to flush out the water from several major thoroughfares.Though the water receded from most of the arterial roads by Tuesday afternoon, several neighbourhoods in the south and some located off EM Bypass remained waterlogged till late in the evening. Kasba-Garfa belt, Mukundapur, Nayabad off EM Bypass and the neighbourhoods of Behala and Tollygunge-Jadavpur areas remained waterlogged for longer hours.Under normal condition Kolkata should receive total 160.9mm of rain in September, according to the Met office. Till Tuesday, the city had already received 134.5mm of rain. Despite the downpour in the past two days, the city still has an overall of 33% deficit of seasonal rain. The areas under Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, however, did not witness much waterlogging. Eighty-six diesel pumps and 60 electric pumps were pressed into the service to drain out water. Civic officials said the less waterlogging is due to the newly built drainage pumping station close to Chinar Park in New Town, which is now functioning to flush out the excess water