Pre-puja crowd pressure prompts pandals to take extra rain guard
Times of India | 7 October 2024
Kolkata: The pre-puja crowd pressure from Saturday night till the early hours of Monday prompted several Durga Puja organisers in the city to take extra rain guard as almost all major pandals have opened for public.
At Tridhara Sammilani, Mudiali Club and Chetla Agrani, there was almost an 800m-long queue of revellers at 1 am on Sunday. The crowd had thinned around dawn but there were several more from the morning till the afternoon showers sent many running for cover.
But once the rain eased, revellers came out in thousands, crowding the popular pandals.
“We had thought of starting the revelry early this year and were out in a hired car for a tour around south Kolkata pujas. But there were long queues in front of all major pandals. We still managed to visit some of the popular ones till late in the night and started again on Sunday, this time in north Kolkata,” said Rishwav Mondal, a college student from Behala.
The Sunday morning and afternoon rain left organisers worried as water accumulated outside several pandals in north and south Kolkata. Near Thanthania Kali temple, at least three pandals — Mahajati Sakti Sangha, Blue Star Club and Shyamsundartala Sarbajanin Durgotsab committee — were under knee-deep water. The organisers had to call for more drainage pumps and deploy more men to clean the drainage channels and drain the water.
“Mayor Firhad Hakim inaugurated our pandal in the evening. Hence, we had to opt for emergency measures to drain the water before his arrival. We have kept pumps for the next few days as well,” said Kalyani Dutta, secretary of Mahajati Sakti Sangha.
At Santosh Mitra Square that was brimming with revellers from Saturday night the ground got soggy after rain. “We cordoned off the muddy portion and made a pedestrian channel paved with bricks,” said Sajal Ghosh, an organiser of the puja.
While Sreebhumi Sporting continued to clock a high number of revellers, other big-ticket pujas surrounding it, like Dum Dum Park Bharat Chakra, Dum Dum Park Tarun Sangha and Dakshindari Youths, also registered a huge turnout on Sunday. “At 5.30 pm, there was almost a 1km-long queue outside Dum Dum Park Bharat Chakra club. The rain played spoilsport for some time but it didn’t rain in the evening and we managed to visit multiple pandals,” said Spandan Mukherjee from Jadavpur.
By evening, pandals in Behala and New Alipore were teeming with visitors. Former West Indies captain Brian Lara was at Suruchi Sangha on Sunday evening, shortly after its opening, and many crowded the pandal to catch a glimpse of him.