Incessant rain lashes Kolkata, other parts of West Bengal

As a result of the rains, waterlogging was reported from several parts of Kolkata, including the airport. Similar was the scene in the neighbouring cities of Howrah, Salt Lake and Barrackpore.

The situation would remain the same throughout the day, the weather office said.

The West Bengal government asked the people, mostly in the northern parts of the state, not to panic but to remain alert for the initial part of next week when there is a prediction of a downpour.

Alapan Bandopadhyay, chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said that the CM was overseeing the situation 24X7 and was in touch with senior officials in the rain-affected districts.

According to the police, ankle-deep water was reported from parts of central and south Kolkata, but traffic movement was not disrupted.

Waterlogging was also reported from inside the Kolkata airport, but flight services were not affected, an official said.

"Both the runway and all taxiways are fully operational. However, a few parking stands are affected by waterlogging for which additional pumps have been deployed to drain the water from the operational area," he said.

While Dumdum recorded 100 mm rainfall since Friday, 81.1 mm rainfall was recorded in Salt Lake and 31.9 mm at Alipore area in northern and southern parts of the city respectively.

"The low pressure over Jharkhand and Gangetic West Bengal turned into a deep depression. It is gradually shifting towards Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. This, accompanied by an active monsoon trough over the southern districts of West Bengal, resulted in the rains," he said.

The southern districts of Howrah, Paschim and Bardhaman, Birbhum, Hooghly, Nadia, and North and South 24 Parganas districts will continue to experience showers over the next 12 hours, he said.

The Met Department also warned of thunderstorms, accompanied by lightning.

A 'yellow' alert for the Gangetic West Bengal districts, including Kolkata, was issued, while an 'orange' alert for heavy to very heavy rains was issued for Purulia, Murshidabad, Malda, Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts. A red alert was also issued for Alipurduar district.

On Friday, Kolkata recorded a maximum temperature of 30.1 degrees Celsius, which was 2.4 notches less than normal. The lowest temperature was 26 degrees, which was 0.6 notches below normal.

Bandopadhyay alleged that the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) released a huge quantity of water in the last two days without informing the state government, leading to the inundation of several areas.

"The member secretary of the Damodar Valley River Regulatory Committee has said that they will release another one lakh cusec of water. The state government expects this to be catastrophic for the state's people. The state has requested DVC not to release such a huge quantity of water without discussions," he said.

There is a need to stay extra alert on August 5 and 6, said Bandopadhyay, a former chief secretary of the state.

"In the next 4-5 days, water level of rivers in different parts of (north Bengal districts) Cooch Behar and Alipurduar may go up," Bandyopadhyay told reporters.

Accusing the DVC of discharging water to engineer a 'man-made flood', ruling TMC leader Kunal Ghosh also posted on X handle in Bengali, "When water level rises in Jharkhand, DVC aggravates the situation in Bengal by releasing water. But never releases water in summer when the state needs the most for irrigation and farming activities."

An irrigation department official said 36,000 cusec water was discharged from Panchet dam, 70,000 cusec from Durgapur barrage, 12,000 cusec from Durgapur barrage.

DVC sources said after heavy rains, stored water has to be discharged from barrages to prevent water bursting the walls.

Meanwhile, flights operations to and from the Kazi Nazrul Islam (KNI) airport at Andal in Paschim Bardhaman district continued to be suspended for the second consecutive day on Saturday as the airport is yet to be ready for operations.

The operations at the airport were shut down on Friday due to water logging in and around its premises.

"Due to continuous heavy rains in Durgapur, we've had to cancel all flights scheduled for today. The prevailing rain has caused some operational challenges and waterlogging in various parts of the city, IndiGo airlines, which is the only company to operate in and out of the airport," tweeted on X on Saturday.

All scheduled flights to and from the airport have been cancelled today, a spokesperson of Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL), said. BAPL is the developer of the airport.

The water has receded from the airport premises and the cleaning process is on. We will be able to resume flight operations from Sunday, the spokesperson said.

Flight operations to and from the Kazi Nazrul Islam (KNI) airport at Andal in West Bengal's Paschim Bardhaman district were temporarily suspended on Friday due to water logging in and around its premises, officials said.

Water had gushed into the airport premises and caused water logging in the operational area, an official said. Several places at the approach road to the airport from the highway were also inundated, he said.