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Kolkata Reels From Record Deluge: 11 Dead, Puja Preparations Drowned In Flood
Kolkata Reels From Record Deluge: 11 Dead, Puja Preparations Drowned In City's Worst Flooding In Decades
Unprecedented pre-Puja rain has submerged Kolkata, leaving 11 people dead and paralyzing the city. The record-breaking deluge has disrupted life, damaged pandals, and sparked a political controversy.
A torrential overnight rain, the greatest in almost four decades, has thrown Kolkata into turmoil, killing 11 people and inundating the City of Joy under knee-deep waters. The torrent has brought the 335-year-old city to its knees, shutting down transport systems and shrouding preparations for the next Durga Puja festival.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) clocked 98mm of rain every hour – one notch short of cloudburst intensity – during a six-hour period, aggregating 251.4mm in less than 24 hours. This is the biggest one-day rainfall since 1986 and the sixth-biggest in 137 years.
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Southern suburbs such as Garia experienced as much as 332mm, while northern suburbs such as Thanthania received 195mm.
Major roads became raging rivers, trapping vehicles and making residents walk through gushing water pouring into homes and apartments. Train services came to a standstill, with waterlogging causing Metro lines from Dakshineswar to Shahid Khudiram, as also Sealdah South, North, and main sections.
#WATCH | West Bengal: A boy relaxes on a mattress and plays in the water as the streets of Kolkata get flooded after heavy rainfall.
Visuals from the area near Rabindra Sadan. pic.twitter.com/YCf7KKsMAW — ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2025
Partial disruptions at Howrah and Kolkata railway stations, and flights being delayed, were also experienced.
"I had to cancel my appointment at a doctor with my mother as I saw on television that some individuals had been electrocuted on the waterlogged roads," said Moumita Biswas, who lives in east Kolkata's Kalikapur.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed 10 deaths by Tuesday afternoon, of which nine were electrocuted after being exposed or left unattended wires. Eight deaths were reported in Kolkata, one in Shasan (North 24 Parganas), and one in Amtala (South 24 Parganas). A further 11th victim died of electrocution in Narendrapur on the southside later that night.The rains reached their crescendo in southern and eastern Kolkata between 2:30am and 5:30am, stranding government offices, hospitals, schools, and colleges. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Y Shrikant observed motorists leaving stranded cars on flooded roads.
"I walked from my office at Ultadanga to Park Circus as there was no public transport," recalled sales representative Sailen Panda.Puja Preparations Drowned in DespairWith Durga Puja starting this Sunday, the deluge has ruined more than 3,000 pandals in the city. Last-minute decorations and artwork are in shambles, converting festive excitement into despair.
"Last-minute work was underway and pandal-hoppers began visiting. This is a huge setback. When the water receded in certain pockets, we discovered that it had destroyed painstakingly created artwork," said Saswata Basu, general secretary of the Forum for Durgotsab, which represents about 500 pujas in Kolkata and Howrah.
The IMD predicts sustained cyclonic circulation up to 7.6km above sea level for 24 hours, with another low-pressure system likely to form over the northwest Bay of Bengal around September 25. Further rain is expected on Thursday, even as drizzles persisted Tuesday.
Declaring state emergency, Banerjee opened a control room at Nabanna secretariat and asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to mobilise pumps to drain water into the Hooghly River. But she warned that Tuesday afternoon's high tides would impede work.
"The drainage system of Kolkata is excellent. But there will be a high tide in the river from Tuesday afternoon. This will retard the work of drainage by several hours," Banerjee said.
State-run schools were declared a holiday, while universities went online. She asked private schools to bring forward Puja holidays by two days.
The crisis uncovered longstanding drainage failures, worsened by construction waste from Centre-owned Metro projects filling up lines. Banerjee asked Metro authorities to clean the land immediately, but was ignored.
Banerjee accused CESC, the city's power distributor, of poor maintenance of electricity infrastructure. "I spoke to Sanjiv Goenka [CESC owner] and informed him that the electrical wires should be updated and kept in good condition. Life cannot be compensated with money but CESC has to provide a compensation of ₹5 lakh each to the families of the deceased. We will assist these families as well," she stated.
A CESC representative rebutted that five of the eight Kolkata fatalities resulted from faulty internal residential wiring, and not their network. The remaining three involved unmaintained streetlight poles. As a precaution, power was cut in flooded areas, with 50% restored by afternoon as waters receded.
The floods also strained the Hooghly River's capacity, swollen by upstream flows from Jharkhand's Damodar Valley Corporation dams, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh via the Ganga. Banerjee faulted the Farakka barrage officials for not dredging the riverbed, pointing to West Bengal's susceptibility as a downstream "boat hull" state.
The downpour sparked a political battle, with BJP head Suvendu Adhikari blaming the Trinamool Congress government for negligence in the face of IMD's orange alert. "Mamata Banerjee and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim were sleeping. They can't accuse nature and escape. Millions are suffering due to the failure of the government," Adhikari alleged.
Banerjee brushed aside the barbs, appealing for unity. "This is not the time to go political. We do not say anything when Delhi and Maharashtra get flooded or when landslides take people's lives in Uttarakhand. Nature is wreaking havoc worldwide. It is not in our control," she shot back.
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