Kolkata: The KMC parks dept that is known for its efficiency for clearing trees that topple on the road took 14 hours to clear a Rudrapalash tree whose trunk split in two during the squall on Monday evening and blocked the entrance to a housing complex in Kasba where over 60 families reside. It was only around noon on Tuesday when civic staff finally arrived to clear the tree that residents were finally able to drive out.Maxillofacial surgeon Ritoban Saha Bhowmick, among the lucky few to return late on Monday and hence parked his car outside the complex as the tree had already fallen and blocked the entire entrance to the complex in Kasba. Some residents had to step out and take an app cab, he said.“Had a tree blocked the public road, it would have been cleared last night itself. Residents from the five buildings in the complex contacted civic officials and police multiple times. Yet, it took 14 hours to clear the tree. Had there been an emergency in the complex, I don’t know how responders would have reached,” said Bhowmick.A KMC parks dept senior official said, uprooting of over 40 trees kept civic employees busy across several neighbourhoods in south Kolkata,hence the delay. “We had to deploy our trained workers from boroughs in several south Kolkata neighbourhoods to remove uprooted trees.
