The water from the lower Damodar river-basin forced the Durgapur Barrage to open its lock gates for urgent release of excess water to relieve itself.

The barrage started discharge at 36750 cusecs at 5.30 am today due to the interminable rain causing extensive run-off since yesterday afternoon in the upper barrage catchment area. “The upper dams have commenced 22,000 cusecs discharge at 4.30 pm today, which is likely to hit the barrage gates tomorrow. So, we required today’s discharge as the small rivulets, high-drains in between have been contributing to the surface run off tirelessly,” said Sanjoy Majumdar, executive engineer, Damodar Headworks of the state irrigation department.

The Kajora-Andal section in the upper barrage catchment received the highest 215mm precipitation followed by Burnpur (146 mm), Durgapur (194.6 mm). The cumulative inflow into the Damodar Valley Corporation operated reservoirs like Maithon, Panchet in last 72 hours was recorded 28488 acre-feet & 43122 acre-feet respectively. The Konar, Tilaiya dams of DVC and the Jharkhand government owned Tenughat reservoir also recorded 2165 acre-feet, 730 acre-feet and 2343 acre-feet inflows in the last 24 hours, the senior Hydrology Observation Circle officials said.

Nearly 150 East Burdwan villages lying in the down outfall command zone of the barrage fell victim as water gushed in today in the early morning hours. Several roads, thousands of acres of cultivated lands went under water and localities in Kalna, Katwa, including Burdwan town and it’s adjacent villages in Galsi, Ausgram, Bhatar, Jamalpur were inundated.

Four fishermen Faring Das, Uttam Das, Srikanta Das and Karnadhar Das, taken shelter on treetops, were rescued by the Disaster Management team members today in Bhatar. Pratik Banerjee, disaster management officer, East Burdwan said: “What we’ve so far estimated, 1,160 persons residing in 150 villages and 15 municipal wards in Burdwan, Kalna and Katwa have been affected due to the calamities.” He added: “Two residential houses were completely destroyed and 410 suffered partial damage in the district.”

East Burdwan recorded 202.5mm rainfall in past 24 hours. The small rivulets like Khori in Bhstar, Burdwan and Gafulia in Katwa caused the most damages and DVC canals caused inconvenience in Jamalpur and Kalna.

In Bankura, 12 blocks were affected due to the catastrophic rainfall, where 148 persons were shifted to 10 relief centres, the officials said.