Pujas that did not enjoy the crowd-puller tag till 2022 turned out to be among the top draws this year.
Among them were GLS New Town Sarbojonin Durga Puja, only in its second year; the BJ Block Durga Puja in Salt Lake and the one by Luminous Club in Kalyani.
At the New Town Puja, an organiser kept announcing on Ashtami afternoon how overwhelmed they were by the sea of people visiting their pandal.
“We did well last year and many people visited our Puja, but this year you (the visitors) have overwhelmed us. We thank everyone,” the man announced.
Ankur Roy Chowdhury, the secretary of Puja committee, said they have recreated a temple situated in a step well in Rajasthan. “Pools of water have been created around the pandal, a replica of the temple. Our pandal has the same view from all angles and from every side,” he said.
The Puja is held in the City Square in New Town, the large ground between Central Mall on the north and the Axis Mall flyover on the south.
The service road, under the flyover, which runs adjacent to the ground had to be shut from late afternoon on all Puja days. The parking area, to the west of the ground, became filled by late afternoon and everyone coming in cars had to park the vehicles on adjacent roads.
The BJ Block Durga Puja was another surprise this year, attracting thousands of people to its pandal. The pandal resembles a gigantic recreation of Lord Shiva.
Umashankar Ghosh, the patron of BJ Block Durgotsab Committee, said that their Puja was “a homage to Lord Shiva and Maa Durga”.
“I have never seen so many people visiting our pandal,” said Ghosh, who has been part of the organising committee for decades.
The crowd pleased as well as annoyed residents of the neighbourhood.
“I am feeling happy and proud that a Puja in my neighbourhood is doing so well. At the same time, I must say that some of the visitors are behaving irresponsibly,” said a resident of Salt Lake BL block. “There were a number of cars parked outside my driveway on Sunday. I could not go out with my car,” said the resident.
An officer Bidhannagar Commissionerate admitted that while the police focused most on managing the crowd at Sreebhumi Sporting Club, they were surprised to see the turnout in New Town especially. “We did not anticipate so many visitors but we managed to regulate the traffic well,” said the officer.
A Kasba resident who attempted to watch the pandal — a gigantic Lord Shiva — on Tritiya said he was surprised to find that all the lanes and bylanes surrounding the ground where the Puja is held were filled with cars.
A Durga Puja in Kalyani reversed the trend this year and people from the city visited the pandal.
An organiser of the Durga Puja by Luminous Club in Kalyani’s ITI crossing said they have always heard people from the districts visit Calcutta to see the pandals. Club secretary Amit Biswas said: “From my childhood, I have seen a large section of people from the suburban areas visit puja pandals in Calcutta. During the past few years, we at Luminous Club have tried to change the trend.”
The replica of Hotel Grand Lisboa is an attempt in that direction.
Additional reporting by Snehal Sengupta and Subhasish Chaudhuri