5.25pm: The crowd bursts onto Park Street as police stop vehicles from entering the road.
Since early afternoon on Wednesday, the pavements had been teeming with people.
By 5.25pm, the numbers had swelled so much that it had become impossible to keep them within the pavements and the temporary pedestrian channels created on both sides of the road.
At 8pm, the road was opened to traffic.
Kolkata Police had deployed 3,000 personnel across the city on Christmas and the largest group was on Park Street.
The sound of so many people chattering, many of them blowing party blowouts, and police whistling to keep the crowd within the cordon created a sound effect only heard on Christmas Day.
There were long queues outside restaurants.
There was not a dark corner on Park Street. The streetlights and the lights installed for Christmas and New Year lit up every nook and corner.
Anushka Banerjee, 23, had come from Howrah to Park Street on Wednesday. This was Anushka’s first time on Park Street on a Christmas evening.
“The Park Street I see now is completely different from the Park Street I have seen on other days. The lights and the sound of this place draw so many people here,” Anushka said.
Kolkata Police commissioner Manoj Verma visited Park Street on Wednesday evening and reviewed the police arrangements.
A watchtower was set up at the intersection of Park Street and Chowringhee Road and police kept an eye on the crowd from the height.
There were two more watchtowers — at the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road-Park Street intersection and the Camac Street-Park Street crossing.
Guard rails had been placed along the middle of Park Street, dividing the road into halves so that people moved in two rows.
The police used hand-held megaphones to direct people or ask them not to block the passage.
Megaphones fitted above the road played messages such as which road to take for exit. People were advised to take Camac Street to reach a Metro station and to walk eastward along Park Street to reach the Mullickbazar crossing.
Tanima Mridha, 26, who teaches in the primary section of a private school, was on Park Steet on Wednesday evening.
“What is special about the place on Christmas is that people come here only to walk, to soak in the spirit, see the lights and enjoy the moment. There is no single building or object they come to see, yet every year people throng Park Street in large numbers on Christmas evening,” said Tanima.
Most people who entered Park Street walking went up to the Wood Street crossing. A large number of them stopped outside Apeejay Building to click photographs of a giant Christmas tree.
Another Christmas tree, outside Allen Park, was also a favourite halt for the revellers.
Some walked up to St Xavier’s College, all decked out with lights.
Park Street police station, opposite St Xavier’s, also looked dazzling, illuminated for the season.