The smoothest traffic in years, an early start to the celebrations and a late rain dampener marked Durga Puja in Kolkata this year.
The Telegraph presents the festive report card
Traffic
Driving across the city during the Puja has rarely been as smooth as it was this year, said many motorists.
Kaustav Roy Chowdhury, a Tollygunge resident, was supposed to meet his friends at Hatibagan Nabin Pally Puja, which was themed on Sukumar Ray’s Abol Tabol, at 6.30pm on Saptami.
He slept off after a hearty lunch and woke up late. “I left home in my car at 5.15pm. I was sure I would not be able to make it in time. But traffic was so smooth that I reached the spot at 6.10pm,” said Roy Chowdhury, who works with an NGO.
More than 6,000 traffic personnel were on the roads in Kolkata, in addition to an army of civic volunteers. While the size of the deployment was more or less similar to the past few years, enforcement was much stricter this year.
The crackdown on illegal parking, haphazard movement of public transport and jaywalking near the big pandals bore fruit.
A resident of north Kolkata who went for pandal-happing in south Kolkata on Saptami night (October 21) said he could cover Suruchi Sangha and Tridhara within 30 minutes and then reached Behala in another half an hour around midnight.
“It would seem impossible till last year. The traffic was well managed,” said Sourav Pramanik, a resident of Shyambazar.
A Behala resident, now settled in New Jersey in the US, is visiting home during Durga Puja after years.
On Navami night, he took a detour through Jadavpur to pick up a friend before heading for a puja in Salt Lake. “It took me less than two hours. Usually, on Navami, it would take two hours to reach Salt Lake from Behala without the Jadavpur detour,” said Pritam Das.
The run-up to the Puja was scary, at least in one pocket of north Kolkata.
The sea of heads at Sreebhumi’s Disneyland-themed pandal turned VIP Road, a key artery in the city leading to the airport, into a traffic nightmare days ahead of the Puja proper.
The cops had a traffic plan in place but had not expected such a surge in crowd from as early as Mahalaya.
By Sashthi, the traffic tweaks were in place and vehicular movement started getting smoother. For the rest of the Puja days, crossing VIP Road was like a breeze, said more than one Kolkatan headed to or coming from the airport.
A Kasba resident received his son at the airport on Navami evening. They left the airport around 6pm. Within 15 minutes, the car was on the EM Bypass.
“Traffic movement was absolutely smooth on VIP Road,” the Kasba resident said.
“We had a traffic and pedestrian plan in place and what worked in our favour was better communication and coordination not only among our officers, but also with neighbouring police districts, including Kolkata police and the Barrackpore commissionerate. Inside the (Sreebhumi) pandal, too, we had senior officers managing the crowds and it worked for us,” said Gaurav Sharma, commissioner of the Bidhannnnagar
police.
Pandal-hopping
By Sashthi, Rituparna Sil, a Garia resident, had visited all the big-ticket pujas of north Kolkata and Salt Lake. South Kolkata and Behala were left for the Puja proper.
Sil, a third-year college student, was among the hundreds of thousands of pandal-hoppers who hit the streets on or right after Mahalaya.
Some pujas had to turn visitors away on Dwitiya (October 16) and Tritiya because
the pandals were not yet complete.
Of the 2,797 registered Durga pujas across Kolkata, many that were inaugurated on or before Mahalaya started receiving a stream of visitors days before Sashthi.
Sreebhumi, Suruchi Sangha, Santosh Mitra Square, Chorebagan Sarbojonin and Kasi Bose Lane were among the highest crowd-pullers this festival season.
“Highest footfall was recorded on Navami. Around 10pm on Navami, there were more than 15,000 people inside the Suruchi Sangha pandal. The overall footfall of Suruchi Sangha, which reached a few lakhs, was the highest through the Puja from Panchami to Dashami,” said an officer in Kolkata police.
Officers said the surge of crowd was highest on Navami, prompting the cops deployed from 3.30pm on Navami to be on duty till 4am on Dashami. “On previous days, the shift ended earlier — around 1.50am on Ashtami and 2.45am on Navami,” said an officer.
Traditional big pujas, including Singhi Park Sarbojanin Durga Puja, had to seek police assistance to control crowd movement around their pandals.
Sreebhumi was the top draw in the north. Chaturthi seemed like Saptami night and the crowd count kept going up as the days progressed.
Sujit Bose, chief patron of the puja and the state forest and emergency services minister, said the puja had in excess of 2 lakh visitors to the pandal every day.
Salt Lake’s BJ Block and the GLS New Town Sarbojanin Durga Puja in New Town’s City Square also teemed with people.
More than 7 lakh people visited the BJ Block puja pandal that had its theme centred around Adiyogi.
The early rush of revellers was reflected in eateries and watering holes as well.
Many restaurants had a long waiting time on Chaturthi and Panchami.
“If Tritiya and Chaturthi were very busy, Sashthi was as crowded as Navami usually is. An early start to the celebrations is definitely a trait of Durga Puja now,” said Sudesh Poddar, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India and owner of Manthan, Songhai and MS Bar and Lounge.
Metro
The trains were overcrowded but no major snag was reported on the Puja days. Heavy deployment of police and RPF jawans at stations like Kalighat and Dum Dum helped in crowd control.
Between Saptami and Navami, the last trains on the north-south corridor left the terminal stations at 4am. The East-West Metro trains ran till midnight on Saptami, Ashtami and Navami.
On the north-south corridor, Metro ferried 39,46,945 passengers between Panchami (October 19) and Dashami (October 23). The count was 37.4 lakh in the same period in 2022.
At 8,00,033, the highest footfall was on Sashthi. It was also the first time in four years that the count breached the 8-lakh mark.
East-West Metro ferried 2,16,581 passengers between Panchami and Dashami.
Weather
The days leading to Durga Puja were marked by a bright and sunny sky. The clear sky prompted people to come out in large numbers from Mahalaya.
Met office had predicted similar weather till Ashtami. The forecast came good.
The sky turned partially cloudy from Ashtami afternoon. Navami was marred by sharp spells of rain across the city in the afternoon. The footfall at pandals took a hit.
Dashami was also cloudy but in phases. Some parts of the city got rain in the afternoon.
Essential services
About 12,000 waste cleaners of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) worked through the Puja.
There were three cleaning services — in the morning, afternoon and evening.This was in addition to the morning door-to-door waste collection.
An official said the bulk of the waste during the Puja is made of leftover food, plates, dishes and cups made of plastic and thermocol.
“About 18 per cent more waste, compared to a non-festival day, is generated daily on average between Mahalaya and Dashami. More than usual waste is generateddaily during the Puja since many people from outside Kolkata visit the city,” said the official.
The vector-control workers of the KMC worked on all Puja days. The 16 dengue detection centres of the KMC were open on all days except Ashtami, which was a Sunday. All 144 ward health clinics of the KMC were also open, except on Ashtami.
Immersion
A KMC official said 2,795 idols were immersed on Wednesday and the majority of these were idols of pujas at homes and small-budget community pujas. Baje Kadamtala Ghat, Judges Ghat and Nimtala Ghat were the busiest.