Around 6 in the evening, the usually short drive through Loudon Street took almost 30 minutes, a distance of about a kilometre or less.
This is one Calcutta’s most significant neighbourhoods for police. The city commissioner resides at one end, and Shakespeare Sarani police station is situated in the middle.
The traffic crawled because the puja — opposite the police station — was hosting a soiree, blocking half the road.
Such police behaviour is unusual during the Puja because the force is known to do a stellar job in managing the massive throng of people and traffic.
The chaotic roads on Panchami almost gave the feeling that the police were unprepared for such a rush.
An officer said the “vehicle count on the roads went up compared to Friday”.
There were forecasts of rain and, to beat that, tens of thousands took to the streets on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Traffic slowed down on Bhupen Bose Avenue as pandal hoppers crowded the streets– Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha.
Like Loudon Street, many roads in Calcutta are narrower than usual during Puja.
Indisciplined parking, jaywalking and unregulated makeshift stalls complicated the matter further.
There were also people returning from their work and last-minute shoppers.
As the evening progressed, the crowd swelled from north to south.
Hatibagan, Chowringhee and Gariahat were chock-a-block. Prince Anwah Shah Road and Camac Street were bad as well.
“The vehicle count, mostly that of small cars, went up in the afternoon when many thought they could breeze past in the lean hours for some quick pandal hopping and last-minute shopping,”an officer said.
Across parts of Khanna, Hatibagan and Maniktala, traffic slowed down because visitors to pandals refused to step inside the makeshift channels, set up to regulate the crowd.
Traffic along the Rashbehari connector was also moving slowly in the afternoon, after a brief spell of showers.
As soon as the rain stopped people poured out on the streets and kept hopping from one pandal to another, including Bosepukur Sitalamandir and Rajdanga Naba Uday Sangha, the officer said.
“This was controlled after 4pm when the deployment for the night shift began and officers started taking their positions at different intersections and also along the roads and at police outposts,” he said.
As evening set in, pandal hoppers began queuing up outside some of the key attractions of the north, including Bagbazar Sarjonin, Hatibagan Sarbojin, Nalin Sarkar Street and Kashi Bose Lane.
“College Square and Santosh Mitra Square remained the biggest draws in central Calcutta apart from Mohammad Ali Park,” said a senior officer overseeing puja crowd circulation.
“Deshapariya Park, Gariahat, Tollygunge and Behala witnessed a huge crowd movement from the onset of evening, when lights came up,” he added.