As a drowning Kolkata struggles to return to normalcy, a doctor interning at Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital has shared that she spent Rs 500 on a rickshaw just to get to work 500 metres away due to water logging. Dr Ishita Bannerjee said that the condition was so poor that two people died of electrocution right outside the hospital.
In a now-viral video on Instagram, Dr Banerjee said she was on emergency duty and could not afford to not show up at work. She added that patients continued to visit seeking treatment even though the ground floor of the hospital was completely submerged.
"I was thinking that there would be fewer patients because it had been raining heavily, but how wrong I was," she says in the video.
She added that since OPD was shut, all the patients had to be transferred to the emergency section. "We had to seat three people in each beds," Dr Banerjee said. She added that at the end of the day, she again had to pay a heavy amount to get back home.
"Now, I will also get to say to my children that in my time, I had to cross seven seas to get to work," she said.
Kolkata paralysed after extremely heavy rainfall
Heavy overnight rainfall brought Kolkata to a standstill on Tuesday morning, submerging arterial roads, crippling transport, and leaving residents wading through knee-deep water. At least 10 people were killed—nine of them by electrocution—as the city recorded its highest single-day rainfall since 1986, officials confirmed.
The downpour, which measured 251.4 mm in under 24 hours, was the sixth-highest in 137 years, surpassed only by the infamous 369.6 mm deluge of 1978 and two other 19th-century records. In some neighbourhoods, including parts of south Kolkata, rainfall touched 332 mm within hours.
The impact was immediate and widespread. Metro and train services were disrupted, flights delayed, and schools shut as the state government advanced Durga Puja holidays. From flooded courtyards on MG Road in the north to waterlogged lanes of Jodhpur Park in the south, the city was paralysed.
The timing of the deluge—just a week before West Bengal’s biggest festival—has added to the chaos. With arterial roads resembling rivers and homes inundated, residents described the scenes as worse than the Amphan cyclone.
(With inputs from PTI)
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