The waterlogging along Amherst Street last week was not just the result of heavy rainfall but was also caused by underground sewer lines in the neighbourhood currently being replaced, which blocked the natural flow of rainwater, sources in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation said on Sunday.

The city received intense rain on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Large stretches of Amherst Street were flooded after the rain.

The road was waterlogged on Thursday.

Though the water had receded on Friday, many of the lanes branching off
from Amherst Street remained waterlogged on Saturday as well.

A senior official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the civic body was setting up a drainage pumping station at Hrishikesh Park, and the new sewer lines will connect to the station.

Much of the old sewer network has been dismantled. The waterlogging was a result of the absence of any sewer network in the area at the moment.

Sources said the civic body has a deadline of July to commission the pumping station.

Waterlogging following a heavy downpour will, however, be difficult to avoid till then.

“I was in Amherst on Thursday afternoon. Nearly 400 metres of the road near Amherst Street police station was waterlogged. There was sheen-deep water or even more for a long stretch. Many who could not wade through the waterlogged road were using rickshaws to cross the stretch,” said a Sovabazar resident who was in the area for work.

When he went back on Friday, the water had receded from the stretch of Amherst Street, but the lanes that had branched off from the road still had water along the edges.

Residents of the lanes had no other option than wading through the inundated lanes.

“There was still some water along the edges of Amherst Street,” said the man.

When Metro visited Amherst Street on Saturday many of the gully pits were found clogged with dirt. The dust and soil had blocked the mouth of the gully pits.

A senior KMC official told this newspaper that the waterlogging was aggravated by the rain, but inundation on a stretch of Amherst Street is now common
even on a day without any rain.

“The waterlogging is common during mornings when households spend more water,” he said.

The official said the KMC had dismantled almost the entire old sewer network and was laying new sewer lines with greater capacity.

“The underground sewer lines will go and merge with the drainage pumping station that is being built inside Hrishikesh Park. We want to commission the pumping station by the end of July,” the official said.

Till then, waterlogging on Amherst Street will be hard to avoid, especially after an intense spell of rain.

“We used machines and pumps to redirect the stagnant water to other lanes where the sewer network is present. We also used suction machines to pick up the water and drain it out elsewhere. These measures will be the only available option till the drainage pumping station is commissioned,” said the official.