Record rains ravage Kolkata: 10 killed, over 90 flights cancelled
Kolkata: Torrential rains lashed Kolkata on Tuesday, leaving at least ten dead and throwing over 90 flights into chaos by evening. Severe waterlogging also paralysed normal life across the metropolis.
Between midnight and 7.30 pm on Tuesday, as many as 42 incoming and 49 outgoing flights were cancelled at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport due to incessant downpour, restricted visibility and poor weather at both Kolkata and outstation destinations, an AOCC (Airport Operations Control Centre) bulletin said.
In addition, 33 arrivals and 62 departures were delayed, while at least one flight had to be diverted, the bulletin said.
The aviation chaos mirrored the citywide disruption as Kolkata lay waterlogged under record rainfall. At least ten people have died, out of which nine due to electrocution, officials said.
Vehicles remained stranded on arterial roads, Metro services were suspended on waterlogged stretches of the Blue Line, and thousands of commuters were left to wade through waist-deep water in several neighbourhoods.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) sources said the southern and eastern parts of the city were worst hit, with Garia recording 332 mm of rainfall within a few hours and Jodhpur Park 285 mm.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of more heavy showers in southern and eastern districts of West Bengal over the next 24 hours, attributing the spell to a low-pressure system over the northeast Bay of Bengal.
Tuesday’s downpour of 251.4 mm in less than 24 hours was the highest since 1986 and the sixth-highest single-day rainfall in the last 137 years, only behind the record 369.6 mm in 1978, 253 mm in 1888, and 259.5 mm, 98 years later.
On Tuesday, the maximum hourly rainfall of 98 mm was recorded between 3 am and 4 am, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, clarifying that it does not satisfy the cloudburst criteria.
According to the IMD, rainfall exceeding 100 mm in an hour over a 20 to 30 sq km area is defined as a cloudburst.
PTI