Around 300 lampposts were ripped off in several places in the city. BSNL cables, towers and overhead wires have been badly damaged too.

Even though state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta assured all help to the residents to combat the crisis caused by the cyclone, neither the state Municipal Affairs Department nor the state Forest Department extended any help to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

“We have been assured of technical help, including manpower and modern machineries, to remove the uprooted trees. We are working with old equipment since this is the first time in 20 years when the city faced a disaster of this magnitude. Despite the alert sounded by the MET department, we could not think of such devastation,” said Debashis Chakraborty, Deputy Chief Engineer, Parks and Squares, KMC. State Forest Minister Ananta Roy was not available for comment.

A senior BSNL official said that towers of the Calcutta Telephones have been damaged due to the heavy rain. “Overhead wires and towers have been badly affected. We have around 26 lakh subsribers who are suffering due to this,” he added.

According to official records, around 1,200 trees fell at several places in the city with south Kolkata being the worst hit.

Besides, the civic body coul not even control the damage caused by inundation of several low-lying areas in the city.

The KMC is yet to start its operation to pump out water from inundated colonies.

Residents of West Chowbaga in Ward no. 108, meanwhile, blocked EM bypass for two hours on Tuesday as the colony remained thoroughly inundated with the civic body providing no relief. Rain-water entered the colony from the Chowbaga canal after a portion of the embankment of the canal developed a crack.

Moreover, the pump in the ward also did not function on Monday.

“We asked the Drainage Department officials several times to take prompt action but to no avail. There was a crack on the wall of the embankment. The workers of the Irrigation Department have started work and simultaneously we are trying to drain out water by pumping it out,” said Amal Majumdar, Councillor, Ward no. 108.

Locals at Manicktala also blocked the Ultadanga Main road as trees and electric cables were not cleared till evening. They also blocked the approach road to Vidyasagar Setu and the East Canal road.

Meanwhile, at a time when the city is trying hard to back to normal Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya seems to be more concerned on how Mamata Banerjee, Union Railway Minister, directed the rescue team of the Metro rail to start rescue operations at Sambhunath Pandit Street where a slum was badly affected in the cyclone.

“There is a protocol for everything. The Prime Minister called the chief minister to ask whether he needed any help to combat the crisis. Mamata Banerjee cannot do this kind of work bypassing the civic authority,” said Bhattacharya.

At present, 15 relief teams with around 10 pay-loaders and two cranes are working to clear the debris.

Around 150 houses were damaged as trees fell on them. According to Debashis Kar, DG(II) (Building), the demolition team cannot remove the debris of the buildings as they cannot be cleared unless the trees are removed.

Meanwhile, with rail and bus services severely affected on Monday, efforts were on to resume normal services on Tuesday.

The Railway authorities said the Sealdah South track, where train services came to a halt from around 1 pm on Moday, was yet to be cleared and services have been resumed from Sealdah to Ghutiari only.

Passengers trying to reach their destinations early on Monday had to wait till 11 pm for the services to resume.

Several passengers had to wait for nearly 10 hours on the platforms. Once the services resumed, the Railway authorities plied trains all night to ease the passenger traffic.

Trains to Sealdah North were more frequent and although the services were still erratic in comparison to weekdays, the authorities said the lines were being cleared and train services would normalise from Wednesday.

Ashok Ganguly, PRO(P) Eastern Railway, said: “Although trains services are almost normal we are still conducting surveys to ensure the tracks are completely safe.”

Meanwhile, three long distance trains — Rupasi Bangla, Jansatabdi and Dhauli — were cancelled from Howrah on Tuesday due to non-availability of rakes for repair works. Many long distance trains scheduled to leave late on Monday were delayed too.