Severe waterlogging, traffic movement hit across city

Kolkata: A large part of the city, especially areas in south-east and south Kolkata, was inundated due to heavy rain that lasted for two hours (1 pm to 3 pm) on Thursday. This severely affected traffic movement, which lasted for close to seven hours, and forced office-goers returning home to spend almost double their usual commute time inside their vehicles.The highest rainfall was recorded at KMC's Ballygunge drainage pumping station (107mm), followed by Jodhpur Park (105mm). As a result, several Ballygunge neighbourhoods were submerged, and storm water took hours to recede. Similarly, areas like Jodhpur Park, Lake Gardens, and Dhakuria were inundated. Several neighbourhoods in the Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt were also severely waterlogged.Several areas in the south-east belt were also inundated due to heavy rain. Neighbourhoods off EM Bypass that fall under Topsia drainage pumping station's jurisdiction were worst affected, as the pumping station recorded 93mm of rain in two hours. Similarly, areas that Dhapa drainage pumping station caters to were heavily waterlogged. Dhapa drainage pumping station recorded 61mm of rain between 1 pm and 3 pm.The KMC sewerage and drainage department operated heavy-duty pumps at the major drainage pumping stations to flush out storm water from waterlogged streets. The civic body deployed sewer cleaning manual gangs to take care of the heavily silted gully-pits and manholes in areas that were lashed by heavy rain.The result left the traffic in tatters ever since the schools ended for the day post 1.30 pm. Traffic in south-central Kolkata normalised only post 8 pm, with the traffic on Maa flyover not normalising before 9 pm.Kolkata Traffic Police warned motorists to avoid stretches like Amir Ali Avenue (both bound), PC Connector (west bound), AJC Bose Road, Maa flyover (west bound), AJC Bose flyover east bound, EM Bypass south bound, ATM Road north bound, and Sarat Bose Road north bound. As a result, cars got stuck on Maa flyover and even the AJC Bose flyover. "The commute between New Town to PTS took around 90 minutes around 4 pm," said Soumen Bhattacharya, a govt employee.The worst hit were the Nicco Park-Maa flyover approach and the Park Circus 7-point and Amir Ali Avenue stretches. "With southbound traffic on Amir Avenue completely stalled, the Ballygunge Circular Road and Circus Avenue were affected along with Minto Park. The traffic mess extended to Exide crossing, and Hospital Road and Casurina Avenue moved extremely slowly. This even affected traffic on Red Road. Cops had to divert vehicles to the south through Khidderpore.Traffic on the entire EM Bypass stretch was also hit, with waterlogging reported on it in various stretches, especially around Ruby crossing. Among other areas in the south that saw traffic being disrupted were Ballygunge and a section of Dhakuria and Behala.Avik Datta, another motorist, wrote on the FB page of traffic police, "Traffic condition is pathetic between Bypass Dhaba to Nicco Park. Please take necessary action." "Pathetic traffic management, took nearly 1.5 hours to travel from Sector V to Chingrighata," wrote Satyaki Guha while returning from his office.