Waterlogged Bhabanipur poses a challenge to officials

Two killed as rain pounds Kolkata, weather to improve on Thursday

A man tries to recover his bicycle that fell into a ditch in a street covered with rain water during a heavy shower in Kolkata on September 29, 2021.

Two persons including a child were killed when a dilapidated two-storeyed house collapsed in north Kolkata on Wednesday morning.

The city and other areas of gangetic West Bengal received heavy downpour since Tuesday because of the low pressure area.

Several parts of the city including Bhabanipur where polling is scheduled on Thursday are waterlogged. The personnel of the disaster response force rescued several persons from a house in Ahirlitola Street in north Kolkata early morning. The two-year-old girl and an elderly woman were declared dead later in the afternoon.

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Kolkata recorded nearly 100 mm rainfall in the past 24 hours whereas Diamond Harbour and Sagar in South 24 Parganas recorded 150 mm and Haldia in Purba Medinipur 220 mm in the past 24 hours. Chairman of Board of Administrators, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Firhad Hakim said there are about 100 old houses in Kolkata that need to be renovated but the administration cannot intervene due to disputes between landlords and tenants.

The biggest challenge for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is to pump out water from Bhabanipur where voters will have to exercise their franchise on Thursday.

“The well-marked low-pressure area now lies over the western parts of gangetic West Bengal and neighbourhood and the associated cyclonic circulation extends up to mid-tropospheric levels. Weather is likely to improve from Thursday,” said the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore.