8 dead as a near-cloudburst dunks Kolkata days before festival

KOLKATA: At least eight people died in Kolkata Tuesday as a 7km column of cloud dumped 252mm of rain - almost 20% of what the city gets in the entire year - in the span of seven hours overnight, submerging the city that was all decked up for Durga Puja in less than a week.

The deaths, all from electrocution in different city spots, occurred when most of the victims came in contact with power cables and lampposts while wading or cycling through flooded streets.

The Bengal govt held power utility CESC responsible for the casualties and asked the company to compensate the victims' families. CM Mamata Banerjee said she spoke to CESC chairperson Sanjiv Goenka. "I have never seen rain like this. It's so unfortunate that people have lost their lives. Their families must be given jobs by CESC," she said.

Rain started pelting the city around 11.30pm Monday and continued almost through the night till around 6.30am. The most intense spell was between 3am and 4am, when Kolkata received 98mm of rain.

Thousands of travellers were stranded at Kolkata airport, with 49 departing flights and 42 arrivals cancelled until 7.30pm. Waterlogging across the city also held up airline crew and flyers, delaying 62 departures. Airport officials said 187 flights were affected by the late-monsoon dunking. These included international flights to Hanoi, Phuket, Dhaka and Chittagong.

There was flooding in nearly the entire city, compounded by high tide in the Hooghly.

More rain likely in Kolkata later this week: Met office
The electrocution deaths were reported in Ballygunge, Gariahat, Netaji Nagar, Behala, Ekbalpore, Haridevpur, Kabardanga and Beniapukur in south and central Kolkata. A CESC official said three of the deaths were caused by people coming in contact with lampposts and one with a traffic light, while the rest were electrocuted inside their homes or factories. Grid supply to over one lakh homes was switched off till water receded, he said.

The Met office said a massive cloud build-up caused by a low-pressure area over Bay of Bengal led to the deluge. There was flooding in nearly the entire city, compounded by high tide in the Hooghly.

The highest rain recorded in a day in Kolkata is 369mm on Sept 28, 1978, followed by 303mm on June 18, 1908. In recent years, the 236.3mm that cyclone Amphan brought on May 20, 2020, was the highest until the relentless downpour since Monday night.

The Alipore Met office warned of another low-pressure formation that could intensify into a depression and bring further rain later this week.

Several south Kolkata neighbourhoods received over 250mm of rain, while Garia on the outskirts topped the charts with 332mm. The intensity and volume of rain, coupled with high tide on the Hooghly, flooded almost the entire city and damaged Durga Puja installations at several places. Road, rail, metro and air traffic were severely disrupted.

Mayor Firhad Hakim, standing in waist-deep water to supervise relief measures, said the high tide was preventing water levels from receding faster than expected. "Even though we are pumping water into the canals, the water level of the Hooghly has risen and the canals are overflowing. Whatever we are draining out is flowing back into the city," Hakim said.

The state govt announced Durga Puja holidays in Madhyamik board schools from Tuesday while ICSE and CBSE schools were requested to stay shut for at least two days to tide over the situation. The CM also asked universities to allow study/work from home.