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KOLKATA: At slightest 8 radical died successful Kolkata Tuesday arsenic a 7km file of unreality dumped 252mm of rainfall - astir 20% of what the metropolis gets successful the full twelvemonth - successful the span of 7 hours overnight, submerging the metropolis that was each decked up for Durga Puja successful little than a week.The deaths, each from electrocution successful antithetic metropolis spots, occurred erstwhile astir of the victims came successful interaction with powerfulness cables and lampposts portion wading oregon cycling done flooded streets.The Bengal govt held powerfulness inferior CESC liable for the casualties and asked the institution to compensate the victims' families. CM Mamata Banerjee said she spoke to CESC chairperson Sanjiv Goenka. "I person ne'er seen rainfall similar this.
It's truthful unfortunate that radical person mislaid their lives. Their families indispensable beryllium fixed jobs by CESC," she said.
Rain started pelting the metropolis astir 11.30pm Monday and continued astir done the nighttime till astir 6.30am. The astir aggravated spell was betwixt 3am and 4am, erstwhile Kolkata received 98mm of rain.Thousands of travellers were stranded astatine Kolkata airport, with 49 departing flights and 42 arrivals cancelled until 7.30pm.
Waterlogging crossed the metropolis besides held up hose unit and flyers, delaying 62 departures. Airport officials said 187 flights were affected by the late-monsoon dunking. These included planetary flights to Hanoi, Phuket, Dhaka and Chittagong. There was flooding successful astir the full city, compounded by precocious tide successful the Hooghly.
More rainfall apt successful Kolkata aboriginal this week: Met office The electrocution deaths were reported successful Ballygunge, Gariahat, Netaji Nagar, Behala, Ekbalpore, Haridevpur, Kabardanga and Beniapukur successful southbound and cardinal Kolkata.
A CESC authoritative said 3 of the deaths were caused by radical coming successful interaction with lampposts and 1 with a postulation light, portion the remainder were electrocuted wrong their homes oregon factories. Grid proviso to implicit 1 lakh homes was switched disconnected till h2o receded, helium said.The Met bureau said a monolithic unreality build-up caused by a low-pressure country implicit Bay of Bengal led to the deluge. There was flooding successful astir the full city, compounded by precocious tide successful the Hooghly. The highest rainfall recorded successful a time successful Kolkata is 369mm connected Sept 28, 1978, followed by 303mm connected June 18, 1908. In caller years, the 236.3mm that cyclone Amphan brought connected May 20, 2020, was the highest until the relentless downpour since Monday night.The Alipore Met bureau warned of different low-pressure enactment that could intensify into a slump and bring further rainfall aboriginal this week.Several southbound Kolkata neighbourhoods received implicit 250mm of rain, portion Garia connected the outskirts topped the charts with 332mm.
The strength and measurement of rain, coupled with precocious tide connected the Hooghly, flooded astir the full metropolis and damaged Durga Puja installations astatine respective places. Road, rail, metro and aerial postulation were severely disrupted.Mayor Firhad Hakim, lasting successful waist-deep h2o to supervise alleviation measures, said the precocious tide was preventing h2o levels from receding faster than expected. "Even though we are pumping h2o into the canals, the h2o level of the Hooghly has risen and the canals are overflowing.
Whatever we are draining retired is flowing backmost into the city," Hakim said.The authorities govt announced Durga Puja holidays successful Madhyamik committee schools from Tuesday portion ICSE and CBSE schools were requested to enactment unopen for astatine slightest 2 days to tide implicit the situation. The CM besides asked universities to let study/work from home.
