Kolkata: Narrow escape for many as gusty wind uproots trees, signal post

KOLKATA: The 90kmph nor’wester that took Kolkatans by surprise on Saturday evening felled more than 30 trees and uprooted a signal post. Many had a narrow escape as some of them came crashing down on moving as well as parked cars.
The heavy showers did lead to waterlogging in some pockets but it was not as widespread as feared. More than flushing out storm water from city’s waterlogged streets, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Saturday struggled to remove uprooted trees from the busy thoroughfares.
According to sources in the KMC parks and squares department, over 30 full-grown trees were uprooted across the city during the squall. Five of these trees fell on parked cars and bikes. However, no one was injured, confirmed a police source.
A traffic signal post on Bidhan Sarani (near Hedua) crashed on the bonnet of a moving car. Fortunately, the passengers got out of the vehicle unhurt. The driver sustained minor injuries. According to Parinita Jaiswal, the car owner who was one of the passengers who had a narrow escape, they were saved because of the driver’s instant decision to take the car backwards after watching the signal post toppling.
A Kolkata Traffic Police sergeant had a narrow escape at Dufferin Road when a large tree uprooted by the squall fell on his bike while he was standing near it. At College Square, two persons sustained injuries following the collapse of a boundary wall.
According to a KMC parks and squares department official, uprooted trees fell on parked cars in areas such as Bhukailash Road (Kidderpore), CIT Road (Kankurgachhi) and Park Street, among other areas. Office-goers returning home had a trying time as traffic crawled along waterlogged stretches of Chittaranjan Avenue, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Camac Street, Loudon Street, Shakespeare Sarani and Bidhan Sarani, among others.
Trees also fell in large numbers in several areas of Salt Lake, Rajarhat and New Town. In Salt Lake, trees fell in Laboni, around Central Park near Mayukh Bhavan, Karunamoyee, Duttabad and in blocks like AE and CA, among others.