Heavy downpour chokes Kolkata city

KOLKATA: A spell of torrential rain, coupled with a high tide in the Hooghly , served the city a double whammy of flooding major roads and bringing traffic to a grinding halt.
It was around 11.30am when the downpour took the city by surprise, virtually blinding motorists and sending pedestrians scamper for cover. Going by the civic pumping stations records across the city , the northern part received much higher rainfall than the south, with Ultadanga logging 105mm --the underpass got flooded --Manicktala 80mm and Belgachhia 85mm.Jodhpur Park, however, recorded 29mm rain only. In Salt Lake, it poured so heavily that the Kund area at City Centre went under water.
Till 8.30pm, the average rainfall recorded at Alipore Met office stood at 37mm.
Even as the civic pumping stations struggled to drain water out of streets, traffic in north and central Kolkata moved at snail's pace. With College Street remaining inundated till late in the evening, vehicles were diverted to Central Avenue and Amherst Street, choking the roads completely . Commuters' woes were compounded by an uprooted tree that blocked half of Vivekananda Road near Girish Park around 1pm. Traffic there was stopped till after 3pm. The entire stretch between Ram Mandir near MG Road and Ganesh Chandra Avenue was also flooded, slowing down traffic. The ripple effect could be felt till B B Ganguly Street, Colootola Street and Rabindra Sarani as well as Rajabazar and Sealdah area.
Anil Ghosh was on his way to Salt Lake from his Sovabazar home when his car broke down on Bidhannagar Road.“I had to call a tow van to haul my car to a shop,“ said Ghosh. Another commuter, Bikram Das, spent over an hour to travel from Ultadanga to Beleghata, a 20-minute drive. “The road was under water. I could not spot any civic worker draining the water out,“ Das said.
Though south didn't receive as much rain, the southwestern areas of Behala and Joka were badly hit. Residents of Diamond City West, an upscale township, had to wade through knee-deep water. “I had to cancel plans with friends as I could not walk through dirty water,“ said Payal Rakshit, a resident.