Kolkata: Heavy afternoon rain and extensive waterlogging brought air traffic to a crawl and crippled access to Kolkata airport on Monday, disrupting flight operations for hours and leaving thousands stranded in snarls. While no flight was cancelled, multiple diversions and delays threw airline schedules off course well into the evening.Between 1.20 pm and 3.40 pm, five incoming flights were diverted because of adverse weather. Five other flights reported delayed arrivals while at least 14 departures were delayed. The chaos extended far beyond the runway. Passengers and airline crew members heading to the airport struggled to reach the terminal as several arterial roads remained submerged after intense rainfall. An app cab was partially submerged at the Haldiram’s intersection. Waterlogging was so severe that even the road in front of the airport terminal and sections of the airside premises were inundated, prompting airport authorities to deploy pumps to drain water.The situation was worse on VIP Road and the Chinar Park stretch. Vehicles remained trapped for hours in long queues as police personnel waded through waist-deep water with loudhailers, advising motorists to avoid the Chinar Park stretch and take alternative routes.Among those caught in the chaos was 45-year-old Indrani Goswami of Salt Lake Purbachal, who sought assistance from traffic police at Kaikhali traffic guard around 6 pm after her app-cab driver asked her to get off near Haldiram’s crossing following a one-and-a-half-hour wait in traffic.“I left home at 3.15 pm but got stuck in traffic on VIP Road. I had to wade through waist-deep water to reach the police, who helped me find an auto. I managed to enter the airport just in time for my 7.15 pm flight,” Goswami said.Roshan Kumar (24), who was headed to Bengaluru, said, “I got off the taxi at Chinar Park crossing and walked to Kaikhali before I could board a bus to the airport.”
