Daily commuters in the morning faced chaos on Monday as heavy overnight rain flooded crucial Metro tracks in the city centre, forcing a partial shutdown of services and leaving thousands stranded. The situation was exacerbated when, just hours later, a man jumped onto the tracks at Belgachia station in an apparent suicide attempt, further derailing efforts to restore normalcy. Metro Rail services between Kavi Subhash in the south and Dakshineswar in the north were suspended from 9 a.m. after water was found on the tracks between Chandni Chowk and Central stations, two key stops on the city’s busy underground network.
Officials said the waterlogging, a result of hours of relentless rain, posed a significant risk to passenger safety.
Initially, truncated services were introduced, running between Kavi Subhash and Maidan in the south, and from Dakshineswar to Girish Park in the north. The critical stretch between Park Street and MG Road remained shut, cutting off vital links across central Kolkata. Though normal operations resumed briefly at 10.58am, a fresh blow came just 20 minutes later when a man jumped onto the down line at Belgachia station. Emergency services rushed to the scene, and the man was rescued, but the incident again brought services to a standstill—just as crowds had begun to thin.
It was not until 12.28 p.m. that full Metro operations resumed across the entire North-South corridor.
Commuters, already grappling with flooded streets and gridlocked traffic, expressed fury over the disruption. “The Metro is the fastest option to get to work. But today we were left with no choice but to wade through water or wait endlessly for overcrowded buses,” said Monami Ghosh, an office-goer at Esplanade. Traffic snarls clogged arterial routes including Central Avenue, MG Road, B B Ganguly Street, and Vivekananda Road. In some places, water levels rose to ankle depth, impeding both vehicles and pedestrians. The city’s traffic police reported having to divert vehicles away from key junctions such as Shyambazar to ease congestion. As commuters struggled, app-based taxi services were accused of price gouging, with many reporting fares nearly double the usual rate.
Monday’s chaos has reignited concerns over the Metro’s resilience in the face of extreme weather—a recurring issue in Kolkata during the monsoon. “Despite multiple upgrades and drainage systems, even moderate rain leads to severe service breakdowns,” said an official at the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, requesting anonymity. The man who attempted suicide at Belgachia station was hospitalised, and police say he is expected to survive. As skies remained overcast into the afternoon and forecasts warned of more showers through the week, authorities promised round-the-clock monitoring of the underground system.
But for Kolkata’s commuters, the message was clear: brace for more disruption.