Waterlogging woes unite Amherst St, Bhowanipore a day after downpour

Kolkata: Several pockets of the city remained inundated even on Friday, 24 hours after the heavy downpour that lashed the city on Thursday.Santu Saha, a private firm employee, is accustomed to waterlogging on Woodburn Road after a heavy spell, but he was surprised that the locality continued to remain under water even after a day.

“It takes around 10 hours for the water to recede on Woodburn Road, but surprisingly, it continues to remain flooded for more than 24 hours,” he said.It’s been two years since real estate professional Nathan Barlowe moved to Kolkata from Mumbai for a job, but he has never seen Woodburn Road flooded for so long. “My office is near Sarat Bose Road, which usually goes under water, but surprisingly, it’s dry there now, but this area continues to remain under water.

It’s surprising that an upscale locality like this has such a poor drainage system. Residents are having to wade through ankle-deep water, though the sun is out,” he said.The city received 84.6 mm of rainfall in just over an hour on Thursday. Accompanied by intense lightning and gusty winds, the showers remained intense for close to two hours. Even as the sun shone brightly at around 3:40 pm on Friday, Allenby Street, Justice Chandra Madhab Road and Heysham Road continued to remain submerged.

Three water-pumping machines at and around Heysham Road whirred since Friday morning, releasing the water towards Elgin Road but, according to residents, the situation was yet to return to normal.Binayak Dasgupta, a retired officer at the Indian Jute Industries’ Research Association and a resident of Paddapukur Road since 1989, said: “Every time it rains, the area gets flooded. KMC has taken the initiative of putting underground pipes and the area has been in a mess for nearly two months.

The rain has made things worse here due to the civic work. I genuinely hope that this helps in improving the condition here.

”Himanshi Jain, a first-year BCom student at Shri Shikshayatan College, was fretting since Thursday evening on whether she would be able to reach Howrah station on time to catch a train to Bihar, her home state. “It’s been nearly a year for me, living at a PG on Heysham Road, and I have faced this waterlogging terror twice already.

In college it’s known, if it rains for more than an hour, Bhowanipore will drown,” Himanshi told TOI.State urban development and municipal affairs minister Agnimitra Paul said that it was not possible to replace the drainage pipes and upgrade the drainage system of the city in such a short span of time, as it has only been just over a month that the new govt has come to office. “For the last one month, we have been cleaning the drainage lines. The irrigation department is conducting work to clean the canals. We have hired about 70 motor pumps to flush out excess stormwater,” Paul said.Paul urged the citizens to call the helpline number to inform them about waterlogging. “Our men will reach the spot and flush out water with motor pumps. We won’t let you face any inconvenience,” the minister said.