Short spells of rain recorded through the day on Monday, Ashtami, failed to dampen the spirit of the revellers.
The crowds at the pandals were visibly more compared with Saptami, but the traffic remained smooth, except a few stretches near big pujas, which witnessed congestions.
Adding to the cheers of the pandal-hoppers, a Met official said the system that had prompted the rain alert had moved slightly away from the West Bengal coast.
The spirit of the pandal-hoppers could be gauged from the courage of Ashwini Kumar, who struggles to walk because of numbness below his knees.
The teenager came to the Ekdalia Evergreen pandal in Gariahat from Belegata, overcoming odds, because he did not want to miss out on the revelry.
“The sight of the spectacular show associated with Durga Puja makes you forget everything. There is a threat of rain. Still, I pleaded with my family members to bring me to this famous pandal,” said Kumar.
A steady stream of revellers was entering the pandals at Ekdalia Evergeen around 4.30pm when a short spell of rain came.
Sudeshna Dasgupta, one of the revellers, held an umbrella in her hand.
“This short spell of rain is not going to deter us. I love pandal-hopping and have come armed with an umbrella,” said Dasgupta.
There was a possibility of washout on Saptami and Ashtami. In reality, and to the relief of pandal-hoppers, the city did not get much rain till Ashtami evening.
“The cyclonic circulation intensified into a low-pressure area. But it is over the westcentral Bay of Bengal and the adjoining northwest Bay,” said a Met official.
The system was tipped to move towards the Andhra Pradesh coast over the next two days.
But Kolkata could receive some rain over the next two days, according to the forecast.
But even if rains, that won’t disrupt the plan of die-hard pandal-hoppers like Debashis Chattui who came to Badamtala Ashar Sangha, off Rashbehari Avenue.
“Last year, we went for pandal-hopping overcoming odds posed by the Covid pandemic. If we could battle with Covid, it should not be much of a trouble to deal with rain,” said Chattui.
Ashtami witnessed relatively better traffic across parts of Kolkata’s south compared with Saptami and the north.
Police said they had put in place drop gates at the Rashbehari and Gariahat intersections and deployed personnel to manage traffic at some key intersections in Ballygunge, Chetla, New Alipore, Behala and Tollygunge.
In the north, Santosh Mitra Square continued to draw huge crowds on Monday, followed by College Square, Chaltabagan and Hatibagan.
The laser show at Santosh Mitra Square had to be shut for over an hour on Sunday night because of the huge crowd that was queuing up, the organisers said.
With the crowd converging around College Square and Sealdah, traffic slowed down across parts of APC Road, Bidhan Sarani and Chittaranjan Avenue during the evening rush hour.
“When crowds converge around a particular zone, the pedestrian crossovers hold up traffic,” said a senior police officer.
Lakhs of puja revellers headed to big-ticket pandals off VIP Road, including Sreebhumi, Dum Dum Tarun Sangha and Lake Town Adhivasi Brinda, on Ashtami. But cops posted along the artery ensured that traffic kept moving.
The crowd count swelled in the evening as people wanted to visit as many pandals as possible so long it did not rain.
It rained and many in the queue leading to the Sreebhumi puja took out umbrellas.
Barring a few stretches, the police ensured that vehicles kept moving along both flanks of VIP Road.
