Even as the city continued to experience spells of medium to heavy showers, life limped back to normal on Saturday – a day after heavy rainfall accompanied by gales lashed the city and its suburbs, bringing life almost to a standstill.
According to the Alipore Meteorological Department, the depression has moved west-northwest and is lying over Bankura district, bringing heavy to very heavy rainfall in the south-western districts of the State as well as in parts of north Orissa and Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, the South 24 Parganas district administration claimed during the day to have established contact with 30 fishing trawlers that went missing in the rough Bay of Bengal waters on Thursday.
Four trawlers, however, remained untraced and search operations by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard continued through the day.
An R-class ship of the Indian Navy along with a Cheetah helicopter on board was despatched from Visakhapatnam during the day and it is expected to join the search and rescue operations on Sunday, according to defence sources.
“The depression is slowly moving further west-northwest. Though the city and its suburbs will continue experiencing light to medium showers in the next 24 hours, there is less possibility of heavy rainfall,” said Alipore Meteorological Department director G. C. Debnath.
Heavy rainfall is also expected in the north Bengal districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar.
The advisory for fishermen against venturing into the sea remained in place. A local cautionary signal No. III was kept hoisted at the Hooghly port.
