The city’s transportation system was severely affected on Tuesday following overnight rain.
App cabs were hard to find, suburban and Metro trains were cancelled because tracks were flooded, and only a few private and state-run buses were running. Commuters had a harrowing time reaching their destinations.
Endless wait
Hordes of commuters were waiting at Ultadanga, Park Circus, Gariahat, Rabindra Sadan and Salt Lake to find a vehicle to reach their workplace.
“Rickshaws in Phoolbagan were charging ₹150 to cross the flooded main road. Some private buses broke down on the road. I had to visit my Santragachi office in Howrah. But abandoned the idea because it’s worse there,” said Saikat Debnath, a pharmacist.
Few buses
Several private bus operators said they chose to keep their vehicles parked in garages after they learnt that almost all thoroughfares were inundated.
“Barely a couple of buses rolled out of the garages in the morning, not sure if the water levels would rise or recede. Things looked a little better in the evening. But no bus owner was ready to take the risk,” said Pradip Narayan Bose of West Bengal Bus and Minibus Owners’ Association.
State buses were pressed into service, government officials said. Out of around 550 buses that were plying during the day, over five of them came to a halt on the way after water seeped into their engine.
“The buses could not be towed from the spot because the breakdown vans were unable to reach the area because of flooding,” said a senior transport department
official.
Truncated Metro
The Metro Railway tunnel of the Blue Line was flooded, forcing the carrier to run
truncated services on the corridor. From 7am trains ran between Dakshineswar and Maidan.
By 8.30am, scores of people waited outside the Maidan station hoping that the service would resume soon. Around 9.40am, the stretch between Shahid Khudiram (Briji) and Masterda Surya Sen (Bansdroni) became operational.
“The section between Maidan and Tollygunge was worst-affected, especially the Rabindra Sarobar area,” said a Metro official.
The section between Maidan and Masterda Surya Sen (Basdroni) was not operational till 2pm.
The full service on the Blue Line resumed at 5.38pm, a Metro official said.
App cab surge price
With the Metro services remaining erratic during the day, many commuters tried booking app-cabs. But even those were very few in number. The one available charged a steep price, citing a surge in demand.
“Just about 40% of the entire fleet of app-cabs were out on the roads. A majority of the cabs parked in garages and parking lots had water on the seats,” said Indranil Banerjee of West Bengal Online Cab Operators’ Guild.
“At 6pm, stretches of Southern Avenue and Park Circus were inundated. Rows of cars that were parked on DPS Road, Harish Mukherjee Road, in Bhowanipore, Phoolbagan and Beleghata areas had their engines submerged under water.”
Train services hit
The torrential rain also disrupted the schedule of mail and express trains, apart from crippling the suburban services in Howrah and Sealdah.
“Maximum waterlogging was reported at Howrah station yard and Sealdah south station yard. The tracks at several stations in the two divisions were heavily waterlogged,” said an official of the Eastern Railway.
In the Sealdah south division, several trains were short-terminated at Ballygunge as the platforms on this section remained waterlogged.
The Kolkata-Haldibari Express from Chitpore, the Hazarduari Express and Sealdah-Jangipur Express were cancelled, while the Kolkata–Jammu Tawi Express, Kolkata–Amritsar Express and Kolkata–Balurghat Express were among those which were delayed.
In the Howrah division, suburban services on the Howrah-Tarakeswar and Howrah-Burdwan sections were worst-affected. Almost every train was delayed and several were cancelled. The Black Diamond and Howrah-Ranchi Satabdi were among the express trains that were delayed.
Many domestic helps and drivers who come from the suburbs, taking local trains, could not come.
An elderly woman in Kasba, who stays alone, said her domestic help called to say she would not be able to come because trains were cancelled.
“I had to call my daughter and ask her to come and stay with me for the day,” she said.