Kolkata: Pockets of the city received a few spells of showers with localised intensity on Wednesday. Under the influence of two weather systems, the city and other parts of the state are expected to get more rain in the next two days, with the possibility of heavy rain in at least three districts on Thursday. The Met office has predicted mostly dry and sunny days from Saturday onwards.The Met officials said a trough line from UP to north Bay of Bengal and an upper-air cyclonic circulation over south Jharkhand and neighbourhood will trigger widespread rain across the state on Thursday.“Such types of systems are expected during the last leg of monsoon, causing moderate to heavy rain. While we expect rain across Bengal on Thursday some districts like east Burdwan, Nadia, Murshidabad and places in other districts adjoining them are likely to get heavy rain,” said HR Biswas, head at Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata.On Wednesday, Alipore Met office recorded 47.2 mm of rain, most of which happened within an hour. Pockets in Kolkata close to Howrah got more intense showers. Rain in the morning, coupled with Red Road being closed for Mahalaya, traffic in the south of the city, covering areas like Kalighat, Bhowanipore and Alipore and the heart of the city across Mayo Road, Dufferin Road and Outram Road was severely clogged, and its ripple effect was felt across Banerjee Road and RR Avenue.“The Rakhaldas Auddy Road and Pratapaditya Road saw small trees collapsing and blocking the road. There was waterlogging at Alipore Road. There were waterlogging reports from Heysham Road, Nandan Road, patches of Asutosh Mukherjee Road and Doctor Rajendra Road. We had no option but to divert all vehicles headed for central Kolkata through SP Mukherjee Road,” said an officer of Bhowanipore traffic guard.The police said that even before they could recover, Red Road was shut on both flanks, adding to the chaos. A flash protest against the Chief Election Commission by Congress in front of Lok Bhawan added to the traffic pressure.“It took me over 1.5 hours to travel in my car from Tollygunge to Dalhousie in the morning. I am worried about the pre-puja week where traffic usually is at its heaviest in the city,” said Gautam Sanyal, banker by .The cops later opened one flank of Red Road, the southern flank, to allow office time vehicles to ease the evening pressure.
