As Kolkata struggled to return to normalcy on Wednesday several areas, particularly Salt Lake and pockets of north and central part of the city, remained waterlogged, a day after torrential rain left 10 people dead and threw life out of gear in the metropolis.
And while schools have been shut till September 25 and private companies urged to allow employees to work from home, several professionals, especially working with tech companies such as Wipro and TCS, had to trudge through waist-deep water to get to work and to return home. In a video titled "corporate mazdoor", a group of Wipro employees are seen walking out of their offices through flooded streets with umbrellas in hand.
"Thank god they are carrying umbrellas, otherwise they would have gotten drenched," joked an Instagram user.
In another video, techies were seen riding on trucks as most vehicles could not drive through the waterlogged roads in Salt Lake's sector 5.
"A corporate job is like working on fire everyday. The world may burn but you have to go to office. It's a different level of dedication," commented one Instagram user, while another said, "You have a devil for a boss. Mine asked me to work from home."
The Met department has ruled out heavy rain in the city during the next 24 hours, though it forecast mostly cloudy skies with light to moderate showers accompanied by thunder and gusty winds at some places.
Water was pumped out of low-lying areas of Kolkata and adjoining areas through the night, but residents of Bidhannagar, which includes Salt Lake, continued to reel under flooding, with vehicles moving at a snail’s pace and pedestrians forced to navigate inundated lanes.
Officials said though floodwaters have started receding gradually, restoring normal life before the festive season remains the administration’s immediate challenge.
At least 10 people were killed, nine of them due to electrocution, as torrential overnight rain – among the heaviest in nearly four decades – left Kolkata and adjoining districts paralysed on Tuesday, crippling air, rail and road transport, shutting educational institutions, and prompting the state government to advance Puja holidays.
The downpour – 251.4 mm in less than 24 hours – was the highest since 1986 and sixth-highest single-day rainfall in the last 137 years, only behind the record 369.6 mm in 1978, 253 mm in 1888, and 259.5 in 1986.
It turned arterial roads into rivers, snapping Metro Rail and train services, and throwing air travel into disarray, as the city gasped for normalcy ahead of Bengal’s biggest festival - Durga Puja.
(With inputs from PTI)
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