“The area where the airport is situated is shaped like a basin. And there is a drainage problem. On Monday, a 100-metre stretch was waterlogged,” said Tapan Mandal, Development and Relief Commissioner.

Passengers of Air India flight were stranded for the second day as the flight could not take off from Kolkata on Tuesday as well.

“We are not bound to provide accommodation to passengers who are carrying tickets at subsidised rates. But on the whole about 175 passengers have been put up in various city hotels. We are operating two flights tomorrow that should take care of about 290 passengers,” said an Air India official.

Jet Airways operated two flights on Tuesday afternoon

“On Monday we had made provisions for stranded passengers in a nearby school. Between 8:30 pm on Monday to 8:30 am on Tuesday, there was 179.4 mm of rainfall. Four flights took off for Kolkata during the later half of Tuesday and many stranded tourists could leave,” said Mandal. Meanwhile, many hotels in Port Blair, including the Peerless Resort and the Bay Island, are struggling to accommodate stranded passengers who have been stuck in the island, since Saturday.

Later, in the evening, the flight services to and from Port Blair were resumed.