Flood situation in south Bengal turned grim on Saturday with 1.19 lakh people taking shelter in relief camps in 12 districts of the state even as weatherman forecast more heavy rains in the next two days.
"So far 966 relief camps have been set up sheltering 1.19 lakh affected people," West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told newspersons.
"We have opened 124 medical camps," she said.
Speaking about the flood situation in the state after a review meeting, the chief minister said 12 districts in the Gangetic plains were affected, while the number of rain or flood related deaths did not increase and stood at 39 people as reported on Friday.
Banerjee then left for Udaynarayanpur in Howrah district, which has been badly affected, to see the flood situation for herself.
She is expected to visit more flood affected areas soon, officials said.
They said that so far 1.8 lakh houses have been damaged and crop was lost in over 2.10 lakh hectares due to the floods.
State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim went to Arambagh in Hooghly district during the day and oversaw relief arrangements for the affected people.
Other ministers have also been asked to visit flood affected areas to coordinate relief operations.
Banerjee said her government would try to support the flood-affected people with its own resources as she was not hopeful about much help from the Centre.
"Did the Centre send any help for Darjeeling disaster (landslides last month)?" an annoyed Banerjee shot back when reporters asked her whether Centre's assistance was sought.
Flooding of farmland, towns and villages were reported from several districts of South Bengal like Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan, Bankura, South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore with heavy downpour occurring in Gangetic West Bengal in the last few days.
Heavy rainfall also lashed Kolkata and adjoining areas since on Friday evening and disrupted normal life, throwing road and rail traffic out of gear since early this morning as most parts of the city were submerged.
The MeT department recorded 143.2 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours till 5.30 pm on Saturday and has forecast heavy to very heavy rains in Gangetic West Bengal for another two days.
The MeT department said Cyclone 'Komen', which made landfall in Bangladesh on Thursday, remained practically stationary there and has weakened into a depression.
The weather phenomenon would move westnorthwestwards and gradually weaken into a well-marked low-pressure area.
Owing to the heavy rains, several roads in north and south Kolkata remained under knee-deep water. Arterial roads like Central Avenue, Park Street, Theatre Road, Hospital Road, Amherst Street and parts of Diamond Harbour Road were waterlogged, leading to traffic snarls.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation is running 300 pumps from its permanent pumping stations in different parts of the city along with 360 more portable pumps to drain out the water, Member Mayor in-Council (Drainage), Tarak Singh said.
The water level in Ganga recorded a high of 6.8 m owing to a full moon on Friday combined with the heavy rains and release of water from upper catchment areas, said a River Traffic Police officer.
The high water level in the river hampered the draining of water from certain parts of the city, KMC officials said.
Train services at Howrah and Sealdah sections of Eastern Railway were affected owing to the flooding of the tracks, said ER CPRO, Ravi Mahapatra.
"At Sealdah, EMU local train services are delayed and we are running trains on Sunday schedule," he said.
That meant several EMU locals were cancelled due to lack of rakes, which were stuck in waterlogged car sheds.
"Mail and express trains to and from Howrah and Sealdah are delayed, but all the trains are running," he said.
Train services at Kolkata station were stalled as the tracks were inundated. All trains to and from it were diverted to Sealdah, except Hazarduari Lalgola Express, which has been cancelled for the day in both up and down routes, he said.
The city's underground Metro Railway service was also affected for some time due to mechanical problem of a rake at Rabindra Sarobar station at 8.02 am. Services were normalised at 8.20 am, said Mahapatra, who is also Metro Railway CPRO.
People largely chose to remain indoors as incessant rains lashed the city since last night. Most schools and many offices were, however, closed with the day being a Saturday.
There was little public transport on the roads with both state and private-run buses not showing up. Taxis and auto-rickshaws were also very few in numbers leaving people who ventured out in great difficulty to reach their destinations.
