Kolkata: Kolkata Police began on-ground preparations for
even as the much-anticipated police coordination meeting was scheduled for Sept 10, with inspections set to begin on Sept 13.
Cops said the focus this year at major pandals—especially in central and north Kolkata, like Chorbagan, Santosh Mitra Square, or Hatibabagan Nalin Sarkar Street—will be the seamless circulation of pandal hoppers. "We are devising new exit plans at a few pandals even as entry issues have not cropped up this year," said an officer. Multiple meetings in this regard took place at the local level in the past 72 hours, said cops.
Sources said that the problem arises in crowded spots where exits open onto bylanes instead of proper roads. "Just like in Chorbagan, where we have kept options to move towards Girish Park open through two separate routes, we need plans to ensure that we have similar options for some big pandals in both north and central Kolkata," said an officer, stating it was a trend that more people would move towards that area that supports parking or is a gateway to another major pandal or a metro station.
"We discussed that we cannot expect all exits to have an equal number of revellers using them. Hence, it will be the duty of volunteers and the police to guide them and avoid a stampede-like situation at all costs," said an officer.
At CR Avenue, closer to the Sovabazar-Girish Park stretch, exits from a couple of pandals are set to become longer, which cops insist will make the dispersal smoother. "The dispersal this year has been planned through Amar Ghosh Lane, which will allow dispersal in three separate directions, adding to options for the revellers.
We will use Muktarambabu Street as the common entry instead of reserving it for VIP movement," said an officer.
Sources indicated that Deshapriya Park in south and Santosh Mitra Square in central Kolkata are likely to be the pandals to be inspected first by senior officers this year before Mahalaya. Elsewhere in the south, cops are also concerned about a puja in New Alipore and another in Behala, especially since they are located less than 400 metres from big pandals.
Cops also expect Kendua Shanti Sangha near Patuli to be a new crowd puller, which can put pressure on the Bypass-BP Connector.
The Kolkata Traffic Police, meanwhile, identified a few zones where managing traffic during Durga Puja will remain their main concern, with the MG Road-CR Avenue crossing, the Chetla crossing, the Rashbehari crossing, the Deshapriya Park crossing, and the Sovabazar crossing being of prime importance.
The huge gathering of people at select metro stations will also be another area that cops have targeted to improve on.
Police are primarily focusing on adequate crowd monitoring using a larger number of volunteers (given the crunch in the number of cops available for duty) and using technology, effective use of a public address system to make key announcements, and effective use of public transport to ensure that these spots do not get overcrowded.
"In the last two years, MG Road and CR Avenue saw a lot of movement post-3 pm during Durga Puja, with a large number of revellers straying onto Amherst Street, BB Ganguly Street, and most importantly, a section of MG Road.
This temporarily affected traffic movement. Hence, we took suggestions from organisers and local cops and discussed ways to improve the situation," said an officer who attended the meeting.
For this year, cops want both sides (along footpaths) barricaded at Amherst Street and BB Ganguly Street. Earlier, only one side was barricaded on Amherst Street. Similarly, at Rashbehari Avenue, cops will be removing hawkers at Bacchan Dhaba, as reported earlier. The flow of revellers to Ballygunge Cultural will be tweaked too for those also planning to visit the Tridhara pandal.