Streets flooded, lives lost as Kolkata witnesses massive deluge before Durga Puja

Kolkata, Sep 23 (PTI) Heavy overnight rainfall that continued till Tuesday morning brought Kolkata to a grinding halt, with families waking up to knee-deep water, vehicles stranded and pedestrians struggling to wade through flooded streets.

At least 10 people were killed, nine of them due to electrocution, as torrential overnight rain -- the heaviest in nearly four decades -- battered the metropolis and adjoining districts, crippling transport and forcing the state government to shut schools and advance Durga Puja holidays.

The downpour -- 251.4 mm in less than 24 hours -- was the highest since 1986 and the sixth-highest single-day rainfall in the last 137 years, only behind the record 369.6 mm in 1978, 253 mm in 1888, and 259.5 in 1986.

It turned arterial roads into rivers, snapping metro and train services, and throwing air travel into disarray as the city gasped for normalcy ahead of West Bengal's biggest festival, Durga Puja, next week.

In some neighbourhoods, the downpour touched 332 mm within hours. Only the infamous 1978 floods, with 369.6 mm of rain, were worse.

From flooded courtyards on MG Road in the north to waterlogged lanes of Jodhpur Park in the south, the deluge spared no corner of the city.

Across the city, life ground to a halt. Metro services were suspended on major stretches, Eastern Railway halted operations on the Sealdah south section, and Circular Railway tracks lay underwater.

At the airport, at least 30 flights were cancelled and more than 30 others delayed, leaving hundreds stranded.

On the streets, EM Bypass, AJC Bose Road and Central Avenue vanished under muddy torrents, buses stalled like dead hulks and cars half-submerged in filthy floodwater.

"I had to walk nearly 3 km in waist-deep water from Lake Gardens to Rashbehari Avenue," said office worker Rupa Chatterjee, drenched and exhausted.

"I don't know how I'll get back home tonight," she added.

In central Kolkata's MG Road, families carried furniture upstairs while children splashed in murky water filling their courtyards.

At College Street and Gariahat, the pavements became makeshift graveyards of livelihoods as traders, their faces etched with despair, piled sodden books that bled ink, garments dripping in limp heaps, and lifeless electronics spilling out of broken cartons, each discarded item a reminder of earnings washed away before puja.

"This is the time we earn most before puja," bookseller Ashok Dutta said, adding, "Now everything is gone." Stranded commuters fumed as fares soared, watching helplessly while autorickshaws refused to ply, buses that never came, and cabs demanded four times the usual fare.

"Autorickshaws refused to ply, cabs demanded Rs 600 for a ride that usually costs Rs 150. We were left helpless," said a commuter at Park Circus.

The city's imagery on Tuesday was stark: motorcycles bobbing like toys, buses stalled mid-route, children wading to school in knee-deep water, pandal workers bailing out water by the bucket and markets, usually crowded before puja, eerily deserted.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who said she had "never seen rain like this," expressed grief over the deaths.

"It is unfortunate that so many people have died, mostly due to electrocution," she said, adding she was in constant touch with the mayor, chief secretary and police to monitor the crisis.

Relief, however, may be short-lived.

The meteorological office warned that a new low-pressure system is likely to form over the northwest Bay of Bengal by Thursday, intensifying rains in Kolkata and southern Bengal by Friday. PTI PNT ACD