Lives lost, waterlogged streets: Kolkata reels under heaviest rain since 1986 as Durga Puja build-up turns tragic

Kolkata: The ‘City of Joy’ woke up flooded on Tuesday, with torrential downpour overnight resulting in waterlogging, not only in low-lying areas but also in slightly elevated neighbourhoods, throwing life out of gear, dampening the Durga Puja festive spirit, and leading to the death of at least 10 people.

With water submerging the railway tracks, several trains from Kolkata to its suburbs and other districts of West Bengal were either diverted or delayed or cancelled.

At least 30 arrivals and almost an equal number of departures were cancelled to and from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, not only because parts of the apron areas and some of the runways were inundated, but also because several members of the crew and ground staff of the carriers could not reach the airport due to waterlogging all across the city.

Over 42 flights to and from the city were delayed. The services of the Kolkata Metro were also disrupted, with several stations in waterlogged areas being shut down for passenger services.

The city was lashed by 251.4 mm of rainfall, mostly overnight, the highest since 1986 and the sixth-highest single-day downpour in the last 137 years.

Babu Kundu, a fruit vendor, left his home on a bicycle early in the morning to earn his daily wage. But, while pedalling through the waist-deep water in the Netaji Nagar area of the city, he could not maintain balance and touched a roadside light post and was electrocuted to death. Live electricity wires under water were blamed for the deaths of most of the 10 fatalities.

The deluge hardly spared any part of the city. From the ‘old city’ areas, like Kalighat, Sealdah, Park Circus, College Street, Behala, Kasba, Bhowanipore and Ballygunge, to newer neighbourhoods, like Salt Lake and New Town, all had streets under the water.

With water entering households in several low-lying areas, the civic authorities set up makeshift shelters for displaced people.

A large number of Durga Puja pandals were damaged across the city. The artworks were washed away due to rain, and water entered several pandals.

“It took a couple of months to first erect and then decorate the pandal. How can we undo the damage with just four days left before the Shashti (September 28, the beginning of the festival),” Ardhendu Roy, one of the organisers of a Durga Puja in New Town, said.

“We wait the entire year for these few days before the Durga Puja. This is the time of the year when our business goes brisk as people buy new clothes ahead of the festival. Even a day of closure means huge loss,” Madan Ghosh, a readymade garment seller in Kestopur, said.

“I express my deepest condolences to the families who lost their kin on account of the negligence of the CESC (Calcutta Electric Supply Company),” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote on X, blaming the city’s electrical utility run by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group.

"Electricity is supplied by CESC, not us. It is their duty to ensure people do not suffer because of this. They will do business here but will not modernise!”

She said that a member of the family of each victim would be provided with government employment. She also urged the CESC to pay additional compensation to the family of each victim.

With the public transport system severely disrupted, the Chief Minister asked the non-essential government employees to work from home.

She also asked the educational institutions, run by the state government, to start the Durga Puja vacation from Tuesday, instead of Saturday. Several private schools shifted to online mode on Tuesday.

Mamata also blamed the Damodar Valley Corporation, a statutory corporation under the Union Ministry of Power.

“The state was already reeling under floods, and its rivers and canals were filled due to the unilateral water release by the DVC. Large volumes of water from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh poured in from the Farakka Barrage, which was already in crisis due to the lack of dredging (of riverbeds). On top of all these, this massive downpour happened.”

The Opposition BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), however, slammed the ruling Trinamool Congress.

“The people of West Bengal are suffering under the disastrous misgovernance of Mamata Banerjee, and her audacity to call this rainfall sudden is an admission of failure,” the state BJP heavyweight and the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, posted on X.

“The TMC government, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which is also run by the TMC, and the CESC, are responsible for the death of 10 people,” the CPI(M) state secretary, Mohammed Selim, said.

“We cannot control nature. I condemn the way some political parties are trying to take advantage of this natural disaster for their own vested interests,” Mamata, the TMC supremo, said.