The city received 24.2mm of rain in just a couple of hours on Wednesday. The resulting waterlogging in several areas raised fresh questions about the civic body’s monsoon preparedness.

An administrator is heading the Kolkata Municipal Corporation following the mayor’s resignation and the dissolution of the KMC board.

A squall swept through Calcutta on Wednesday afternoon, with wind gusts reaching 60kmph. The cloudy weather is likely to persist on Thursday.

The city turned dark late in the afternoon, with motorists driving with their headlights on. Waterlogging along stretches of several roads made it difficult for pedestrians to access pavements.

A woman in her 40s said the edge of the road outside Kalighat Metro station was waterlogged.

A stretch of Central Avenue outside Chandni Chowk Metro station was also
flooded.

“I had to walk ahead to find a point from where I could get onto the pavement,” said a commuter.

The rain was a precursor to the monsoon, which is advancing towards south Bengal, according to the Alipore Met office.

Conditions are favourable for the southwest monsoon to advance into the remaining parts of the southwest Bay of Bengal, more areas of the west-central and northwest Bay of Bengal and Bengal, and parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha over the next three to four days, a Met bulletin said on Wednesday.

“The monsoon is inching closer to south Bengal. It has already reached the upper parts of north Bengal and is expected to arrive in south Bengal in the next three to four days,” said Sourish Bondyopadhyay of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.

On Wednesday, the maximum temperature touched 35.2° Celsius, 0.7 degrees above normal and the minimum temperature was 29.6° Celsius, which is 2.4 degrees above normal.

Calcutta recorded 24.2mm of rain till 5.30pm. Dum Dum received 32mm, Salt Lake 29mm, Uluberia 30mm, Diamond Harbour 22mm and Barrackpore 54mm.

A review meeting on monsoon preparedness was held at a community hall in Vivekananda Park on Wednesday. The meeting focused on boroughs VI to X and XV that cover large parts of south, southeast and southwest Calcutta.

KMC administrator Smita Pandey chaired the meeting.

Former mayor Firhad Hakim, who stepped down on Friday, attended as the MLA from Kolkata Port. The KMC had invited the MLAs of Kolkata Port, Rashbehari, Ballygunge and Bhabanipur.

Besides Hakim, none of the other MLAs attended the meeting. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, the MLA from Bhabanipur, sent a representative for the meeting.

Officials present at the meeting said Hakim offered several suggestions on preventing waterlogging.

A few former councillors also attended.