West Bengal: ‘Low pressure moves away but light rain likely today’

KOLKATA: The city remained cloudy and received multiple spells of rain on Tuesday even as a low-pressure, that has been triggering showers across south Bengal since Monday, moved away towards Bihar. A strong southeasterly wind, however, continued to blow into Gangetic Bengal, carrying in moisture and clouds from the sea. Kolkata received 6 mm rain till 5.30 pm on Tuesday.
Under the impact, Kolkata and its neighbouring districts could receive light to moderate rain till Wednesday, said the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC).
A heavy rainfall alert has been issued for north Bengal till Wednesday. While some places of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Alipurduar received heavy rain on Tuesday, parts of Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri could be lashed by a heavy downpour on Wednesday, according to a IMD bulletin. The rain could continue in Darjeeling and Kalimpong on Wednesday.

In Kolkata, the rain remained restricted to repeated spells of drizzle and rarely got heavy. “With the low-pressure moving away from Gangetic Bengal, the rain intensity was low. But southeasterly winds continued to fetch clouds that made the showers continue. We expect the rains to stop by Wednesday, though thunderstorms may still occur in some south Bengal districts,” said an RMC official.
Several places across coastal districts of South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore received a heavy downpour throughout Tuesday. Bakkhali, Saagar Island, Digha and Shankarpur were drenched by continuous rain.
Even though it rained since Monday afternoon, no major waterlogging was reported in Kolkata. According to KMC sewerage and drainage department, the intensity never crossed 10 mm an hour. That saved the city from inundation. “Going by rainfall pattern recorded by our major drainage pumping stations, the intensity was much less compared to that of the end-September rain that had caused waterlogging across large areas,” said an official.
Accumulated rainfall recorded by KMC showed areas like Belgachhia, Beliaghata, Ultadanga, Kidderpore, Ballygunge, Behala received over 40 mm rain in past 24 hours. But, since the intensity was less, even low-lying areas like Muktarambabu Street, Amherst Street, Camac Street, Behala and areas off Bypass could escape flooding.
Three houses collapse in 24 hrs
The city witnessed three more house collapses across north and Port areas between Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Though a car was partially damaged, no one was injured in any of these incidents.
The police said the major incident was reported from Burtolla when a three-storey dilapidated building located on Hemendra Sen Street (in pic above) collapsed around 10.30am on Tuesday morning. No one was staying at the house. The house collapsed and fell on an adjoining garage of a multi-storied building. The second incident was reported thirty minutes later from Ward 25 in Girish Park when the first floor balcony of the three storey building on Gour Mohan Mukherjee Street collapsed. The third incident took place on Monday night at Kabitirtha area of Kidderpore.