More than a week has passed since Dashami but the remains of many Durga Puja pandals still stand on roads and pavements, making them narrower.

The pandals are not alone. The bamboo scaffolding on which temporary banners were put up ahead of the Puja have yet to be taken down at many places.

The bamboo poles in all these structures are a health scare as water accumulated in their cavities can host mosquito-breeding sites. An impending cyclone is expected to trigger heavy rain in Calcutta later this week.

On Sunday, The Telegraph found such temporary structures across the city — Central Avenue, Amherst Street, Kalighat, Purna Das Road and Kasba, among others.

A pandal on Harish Mukherjee Road blocked a third of the thoroughfare and a slice of the pavement.

In Kalidas Patitundi Lane in Kalighat, another pandal blocked more than half the road and the pavement along it.

On Sadananda Road, large overhead across-the-road gates that had been erected before the Puja for display of banners were yet to be removed. The structures have gobbled up a significant portion on both sides of the road.

A resident of Kasba said a couple of pandals partially blocking lanes were yet to be dismantled.

Saswata Basu, secretary, Forum For Durgotsab, told this newspaper: “There is a crunch of labourers till Lakshmi Puja. Now, they are back. The structures of pandals and other scaffolding will be removed in a couple of days.”

Officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), the custodian of the city’s roads and footpaths, said the puja committees were not given a deadline for the removal of pandals and all associated structures.

“They were only told to make the roads and pavements clear as early as possible,” said an official.

The bamboo poles used in the pandals and the frames built for temporary banners and hoardings are a threat, a KMC official acknowledged.

“The bamboo poles have holes on the top that are inaccessible. There is a possibility of water accumulation in these cavities,” said the official.

“Such holes may host mosquito-breeding sites if it rains. The structures need to be urgently pulled down,” the official said.

Debashis Kumar, the mayoral council member in charge of the KMC’s advertising department, told this newspaper: “My department oversees the removal of the banners and flexes by Lakshmi Puja. I will have to find out about the structures that remain. But we will have them removed as early as possible.”