Kolkata: Torrential rain for a couple of hours in the morning—this monsoon’s first heavy spell—flooded large areas of Kolkata as well as Salt Lake and New Town on Friday. Consequently, traffic on multiple stretches, especially in central Kolkata, slowed down in the morning peak hours.The intensity of the showers was particularly high in Dum Dum and some areas off EM Bypass with the KMC pumping stations recording the most rainfall in Pagladanga, a neighbourhood between Tangra and Beleghata, with 115 mm. It was followed by Belgachhia (95 mm), Dhapa (90 mm), Ultadanga (89 mm) and Birpara (88mm). As a result, stretches in Dum Dum, Belgachhia, Ultadanga and Shyambazar, apart from the chronic flooding stretches of Amherst Street, Thanthania, C R Avenue, Sukeas Street and College Street, went under water.Even the premises of RG Kar Hospital in Shymabazar was flooded, forcing patients, families as well as doctors and healthcare staff to wade through ankle-deep water to move from one block to another. While the patient wards and OPD counters stayed dry, water entered the ground-floor rooms in the surgery department, that housed some offices, too. A hospital official said patient care services were not disrupted.The KMC drainage department went on flushing storm water out of Amherst Street, Kesab Sen Street, Thanthania and Muktarambabu Street till late in the afternoon. The accumulated water slowed down traffic on C R Avenue, Ultadanga Main Road, Phoolbagan, College Street, Bidhan Sarani and some stretch of EM Bypass, like the one between Kadapara and Metropolitan, VIP Bazar and Science City.South Kolkata received comparatively less rainfall though the figure recorded at Ballygunge was 70mm and large parts of Bhowanipore, including Northern Park area, were flooded. Water accumulated in parts of the Alipore zoo, where a leak in a pipe, carrying water from the Hooghly, added to the problem. State urban development and municipal affairs minister Agnimitra Paul, along with senior KMC drainage department officials, visited the zoo to assess the situation. The KMC team deployed sucker machines to drain out the water. Animals were unaffected.Similarly flooded were roads in Salt Lake and New Town even as Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and New Town Kolkata Development Authority teams went into a overdrive to clear gully pits and drain out storm water. Vehicles moved slowly through waterlogged streets of Sector V as well as Karunamoyee. Even blocks surrounding the Salt Lake stadium and several stretches on First Avenue went under water. In New Town, too, water accumulated in several neighbourhoods though it was worse in the usual flooding spots on and near VIP Road, like Kaikhali, Haldiram crossing and Chinar Park.
