Heavy rains throw Kolkata off gear.
Owing to overnight showers, several parts of Kolkata is currently waterlogged, virtually bringing traffic to a standstill. Areas like Amherst Street, Md Ali Park, Behala, Kidderpore and parts of CR Avenue were inundated in the morning. A tree fell on Alipore Park Road disrupting traffic. Officials of disaster management group and Kolkata Municipal Corporation reached the spot and cleared the tree at about 11.15 am. This has lead to change in West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's itinerary.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s scheduled trip to Digha has been called off. She was supposed to leave for Digha in East Midnapore district on Tuesday, to chair an administrative meeting on Wednesday and attend a government event on Thursday before returning. Now she is staying back to monitor the unfolding situation in the state.
According to Zee 24 Ghanta, most of the low lying areas of the city are currently underwater. Water has also entered Metro subway in Mahanayak Uttam Kumar station. Water logging has also been reported from several parts of the Eastern Metropoliton Bypass.
Alipore Meteorological office has predicted heavy to very heavy rain in certain parts of the state in the next 24 hours due to a depression over the Bay of Bengal and thus Mamata has cancelled the visit to monitor the rain situation from Nabanna, the state secretariat.A control room has been opened at Nabanna and officials of Disaster Management department have been kept on high alert.
Sources at Nabanna said that Mamata wanted to monitor the situation herself and thus has cancelled her visit. Sources also said that she would be in constant touch with district magistrates of affected districts. If there is no flood situation in the next 24 hours the administrative meeting could be convened at Kolaghat in East Midnapore district.
In the last 24 hours, till 6.30 am on Tuesday, it has rained 147.5 mm, which is the second highest in the last 10 years. On June 28, 2011, the recorded rainfall was 154.8 mm.
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 "Heavy rains in Kolkata")
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