Be warned, waterworld ahead, from Park Street to Gariahat.

The distant thunder of monsoon ’04 is growing louder in the civic corridors of power as large pockets of south Calcutta brace for waterlogged months ahead.

Mayor Subrata Mukherjee has blamed the “incomplete” flyovers of the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) and the poor progress of resuscitation of the city’s canals, with money from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

He forgot to mention the third factor — the equally slow pace of work on the Tollygunge-Garia Metro Railway stretch. Officials said this, too, would make life difficult for Calcuttans.

Explaining his point, the mayor said the drainage system under the flyovers at Gariahat, AJC Bose Road and off Park Street had been disturbed and the road below the flyovers concretised without repairing the damage. Work on restoring the system was underway, he added, wondering how the flyovers could be called “ready” when an important chunk of work was left to be completed.

The HRBC recently undertook work of concretising a part of Gariahat Road, more than a year after the flyover was put to use. But officials said the layer of concrete, without any drainage facility, would result in water standing after every smart shower. There are four lanes branching off from this stretch of Gariahat Road and they, too, can look forward to being flooded.

The same situation exists on the stretch of AJC Bose Road and Park Street, where one flyover has been constructed and another is underway, respectively. Officials say a “decent shower” will result in both stretches going down under.

The problem has sent alarm-bells ringing at Writers’ Buildings. Principal secretary, state transport department, Sumantra Chaudhuri, convened a meeting last week, where Calcutta Municipal Corporation commissioner Debashis Som and HRBC vice-chairman Sadhan Banerjee were present. The agenda — waterlogging checks.

But the meeting did not throw up any solution. The HRBC could not promise restoration of the drainage system under the Gariahat flyover before monsoon ’04.