Kolkata reeled under the weight of its heaviest rain in nearly four decades as large parts of the city remained paralysed on Wednesday, a day after 251.4 mm of rainfall submerged roads, disrupted air and rail traffic and left at least 10 people dead, nine of them from electrocution.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed solidarity with the people of Bengal and called for urgent intervention from both state and central governments. “My thoughts are with the people of Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal as they endure the devastation caused by incessant rainfall and flooding. Heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones,” Gandhi said in a message on X.
“I urge Congress workers to extend all possible support, and request state and central governments to act swiftly to help restore normalcy,” he added.
Salt Lake, along with swathes of north and central Kolkata, continued to be under water on Wednesday, even as the state government advanced Durga Puja holidays and scrambled to clear arterial roads that had turned into rivers.
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The India Meteorological Department said the maximum hourly rainfall, 8 mm between 3 am and 4 am on Tuesday, did not meet the definition of a cloudburst. A cloudburst, by definition, requires rainfall exceeding 100 mm in an hour over a 20–30 sq km area.
Tuesday’s downpour was the sixth-highest single-day rainfall in the city in the last 137 years, topped only by the record 369.6 mm in 1978 and 259.5 mm in 1986. The floods left the airport shut for hours, Metro services snapped, and hundreds of passengers stranded as transport systems crumbled.
The deluge comes just days before Durga Puja, casting a shadow over Bengal’s biggest festival as the city gasped for relief from waters that showed no sign of receding quickly.
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