At Konnagar, about 20km from Calcutta across the Hooghly, the railway line cuts the town into two, the municipal area to the east and the panchayat area (Nabagram) to the west.

When it rained through the night on Saturday, the water rose and rose and finally drowned a bus parked in the subway under the railway tracks that connects the two Konnagars.

The subway was under water all of Sunday. A day later, it still was. The Trinamul-run municipality blames the waterlogging on the CPM-run Nabagram panchayat, whose term has ended.

Amid all the confusion and with the subway remaining out of bounds, thousands are being forced to walk across the railway tracks.

“This morning, the driver of my daughter’s pool car called me up and said he would not be able to pick her up as the underpass was flooded. I had to take her to her school by train. In the afternoon, the school bus dropped her near Konnagar station and I had to bring her home by crossing the tracks. I know this is illegal but there was no alternative,” said Antara Sarkar, whose daughter is a Class II student at St. Joseph’s Convent, Chandernagore.

“The driver has said I would have to drop my daughter at and pick her up from near the station for the next few days till the water recedes,” added Sarkar, a resident of Nabagram.

Apart from the underpass, the only other motorable route to reach Nabagram from the city is via Delhi Road and Dankuni, a detour of 14 km.

Konnagar Municipality maintains the underpass and charges a toll from the users. On Sunday afternoon, the underpass, which has a maximum depth of 18 feet, was completely under water. A private bus that ferries school students and was parked in the subway got submerged. The entire windscreen and side windows of the bus went under water.

Metro visited the place 24 hours later and found the water level had dropped by around 2ft, not enough for the bus to be towed out.

There is an 8ft-wide pathway next to the motorway under the tracks but even that was under waist deep water on Sunday. On Monday afternoon, the water was ankle deep.

Konnagar Municipality claims they had deployed three submersible pumps at the underpass to drain out the water but water from the Nabagram panchayat area was causing trouble.

“There is a jheel beside the underpass in Nabagram which overflowed and flooded the subway on Sunday. Even as we were draining out the accumulated water, water from the jheel, which was at a higher level than the underpass, was entering the subway,” said Bappaditya Chatterjee, the Trinamul chairman of the municipality.

A pipeline from the jheel used to drain out excess water into another pond, 200 metres away. “The pipe must have been choked with garbage and plastic and requires cleaning, which the authorities are not doing,” alleged Chatterjee.

The responsibility of maintaining the pipe lies with the Nabagram panchayat. The former pradhan of the panchayat said he knew that people were suffering but could do little as the panchayat had ceased to exist on June 25. A new panchayat can take charge only after the rural elections.

“I am no longer holding the post and hence can do nothing. I have asked the special officer appointed by the government to do the job but he has not done anything yet,” said Amalendu Mukherjee, the former CPM pradhan.

The special officer can request the government for money and get work started after it comes.

“I have taken charge only a few days ago. If the water does not recede today, we will call a meeting tomorrow,” said the special officer, attached to the local block development office.

As the authorities prefer to wait and watch, the residents are having a harrowing time. “I did not return home yesterday as my mother had called me up and said the road leading to our home from Konnagar station was flooded and several snakes were spotted in the water. I stayed back at an uncle’s house in Tollygunge,” said Tamal Mukherjee, who works at an IT firm in Rajarhat.

The submerged bus belongs to Akhil Ghosh, a local resident. “I had parked my bus in the subway on Saturday evening. On Sunday morning, I found it submerged. I do not know how much the repairs will cost me,” said Ghosh.

“I contacted some local breakdown van operators who said the bus could be towed away after water recedes further.”