Revellers flooded streets and trooped into pubs and restaurants as the city bade farewell to 2024 and welcomed the New Year.

Since afternoon, Park Street and its adjoining roads had been teeming with year-end revellers.

The weather — a drop in the afternoon temperature and a gentle breeze since the morning — played along.

“I had been trying to visit Park Street for the last few days but it was so warm that I decided against coming. The weather is pleasant today. Since today is 31st, I did not let go of the opportunity,” said Debayudh Mitra, 22, who works for an MNC in Hyderabad.

A resident of Hooghly’s Uttarpara, Mitra came to Park Street with his parents.

The restaurants were packed from noon till late afternoon, with barely a lean phase. From around 8pm, long queues had again formed outside Mocambo, Peter Cat, Trincas and Kwality, among others.

The Alipore Met office said the maximum temperature on Tuesday was 22.6 degrees Celsius, 2.8 notches below normal. The maximum in the last few days remained above normal.

“The minimum temperature is also likely to dip from Tuesday for two-three days but will rise again owing to western disturbances. Tuesday was breezy since the morning,” said an official in the India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.

Restaurants in the Park Street area were packed even during non-rush hours on Tuesday.

Sudesh Poddar, the president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India, said a sizeable number of those visiting the restaurants on Park Street on Tuesday were from offices in the vicinity.

“A lot of people from offices had come for an afternoon lunch on the last day of the year. The tables were packed till 4.30pm or 5pm, which are usually lean hours on a working day,” said Poddar.

“The tables were packed till late afternoon. There was a relative lull in the early evening and it picked up again from 8pm. There was a queue of at least 20 people by 8.30pm,” said Anand Puri, one of the partners of Trincas on Park Street.

A woman who visited Park Street in the evening said most people had leather jackets and other winterwear on them. “There was a nip in the air and a breeze could be felt,” she said.

Kids, their parents and young people had thronged the Maidan in the afternoon. Many were spotted playing games under the afternoon sun. A police officer said the crowd was manageable and traffic ran without any hindrance.

The police had created a pedestrian channel on Park Street by carving out space from the carriageway.

“The channel has been created so pedestrians do not come to the middle of the road and to prevent accidents. It also helped pedestrians as the increase in the number of visitors to Park Street on New Year’s Eve meant the footpaths were packed,” said an officer of Kolkata Police.

The police deployed an additional 4,500 personnel across the city on Tuesday. The majority of them were on and around Park Street.

“There were women officers, plainclothesmen and senior officers on duty,” said an officer.

Traffic along Park Street will be one-way, west to east (Chowringhee to Park Circus), from 1pm on Tuesday till early on Wednesday. Usually, Park Street is open for two-way traffic from 10pm till 6am.

Shakespeare Sarani (Theatre Road), too, will be one-way, from east to west (Park Circus to Chowringhee), from 1pm on December 31 till 3am on January 1.

The officer said the roads are kept one-way to deal with a possible spurt in the number of revellers and vehicles on Park Street around midnight.