3 injured, flight, train services hit as rains lash Bengal

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SME Times News Bureau | 17 Aug, 2019
Three persons were injured, flight and train services disrupted as large parts of Kolkata and other south Bengal districts submerged in water on Saturday following heavy monsoon rains.

Two persons were injured after a mini truck collided with a container on a waterlogged road in Girish Park in North Kolkata, while a security staff got wounded when the ceiling of a godown gave way in East Kolkata's Tangra locality, police said.

According to NSCBI Airport authorities, 24 outbound and 14 incoming flights were delayed between 5 a.m. and 11.45 a.m. due to bad weather, while a flight was cancelled.

Circular railway services were halted at 10.40 a.m. between Princep Ghat and Bagbazar stations as the track got inundated.

Six suburban trains were cancelled on the Howrah-Burdwan main line of the Eastern Railway with water entering the EMU carshed.

With the leaden eyed skies opening up since Friday afternoon, vast areas of the eastern metropolis from Ram Mandir and Thanthania in the north to Alipore, Ekbalore, Khidirpur, Behala in the South saw waterlogging.

In the state's showpiece IT hub of Saltlake sector 5, officegoers had a trying time as most of the streets were under knee deep to ankle deep water. Auto rickshaws and cycle rickshaws merrily fleeced passengers.

The weatherman said the city received 186.1 mm of rains over the past 24 hours till 11.30 a.m. on Saturday and has predicted more rains over the next few days following a cyclonic circulation formed on Friday over South Bangladesh and adjoining Gangetic West Bengal.

The Regional Meteorological Centre here has warned fishermen not to venture into the sea during the next 24 hours as squally wind speed exceeding 45 kmph and rough to very rough seas are likely over North West Bay of Bengal under the influence of the cyclonic circulation.

In Kolkata's twin city Howrah, 20 of the municipal wards were submerged.

In Howrah's Panchanantala, passengers of a mini bus on Dasnagar-Dharamtala route had a narrow escape as one of the wheels of the vehicle got stuck in an open manhole.

In Onda of Babkura district, water was flowing over a a key bridge, while an underpass was submerged in Hooghly district's Sreerampore.

A number of areas in neighbouring South 24 Parganas district were under water. There was waterlogging in many localities of Rajpur-Sonarpur municipality, Mathurapur and Raidighi.