Heavy overnight rain inundates Kolkata's Salt Lake area

KOLKATA: Large parts of Salt Lake was flooded after heavy overnight downpour lashed the area on Saturday. Countinous rains made it difficult for the civic authorities to flush out the excess stormwater.
Several pockets of Salt Lake including FD Block, EC Block, DD Block, on the main thoroughfares in front of Purta Bhavan, large parts of Karunamoyee and several other places were inundated under water till late Saturday afternoon.
“It was more than ankle deep on the road and about knee deep just at the entrance of our house. After a long time we have witnessed such waterlogging. Water receded only after late afternoon,” said Surajit Maji, a resident of FD Block.
Several lanes inside Karunamoyee housing estate too were inundated. “I had to wade through ankle high water to come out of the complex,” said Sohini Chatterjee, a local resident.
Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation mayor Krishna Chakraborty along with other senior councillors and officials took stock of the situation. “There has been some waterlogging in the low lying areas. Some of the drainage lines got chocked with plastic. All the pumps are being operated and work to flush out water has been going on since morning,” Chakraborty said.
There was also heavy waterlogging across Sector V for a few hours. “The intensity of the rain was so high at a particular given of time that the gully pits could not drain out the excess stormwater. In normal circumstances it would had taken at least four to five hours for the water to recede. All the pump houses operated continuously as water receded from the roads in an hours time,” said a NDITA official.