Newtown Sarbojanin
The New Town puja has done it again — it has drawn the largest crowd across the twin townships, and crowd and traffic management have also improved since the puja began four years ago.
The puja’s vice-president, Anupam Jana, claimed that the pandal drew around 7 lakh visitors per day. “This was a jump from last year, and one reason is the opening of the full stretch of the East-West Metro. People from distant areas could hop onto the train from Howrah, get off at Salt Lake, and take autos to our pandal,” he said, adding that Saptami saw the heaviest footfall.
Another reason was the heavy rainfall on the night from September 22 to 23. “The chief minister inaugurated our puja virtually on Mahalaya, and visitors started coming the very next day. But some big pandals that were already alongside us were affected by the downpour. Ours, being on raised ground, had no waterlogging. The installations stayed intact, too,” said media convenor Runa Ghosh. “So people skipped going to other pujas and came to us instead right from the initial days. And despite the gloomy skies outside, they saw the shiuli flowers of our pandal and found the puja vibe they were in search of.”
Lalu Roy of Salt Lake’s CD Block visited this pandal at 2am on Navami, after waiting in an hour-long queue, but couldn’t enjoy it as much as he’d hoped. “The pandal was so beautiful that I felt I had reached heaven. But the security staff kept whistling into our ears and urging us to move, so I couldn’t soak it in,” said Roy, who later managed some VIP passes and planned a revisit the next evening.
On Navami evening, The Telegraph Salt Lake witnessed police officers working tirelessly to manage traffic. Every motorist seemed eager to break cordons and find shortcuts. Under the Axis Mall flyover, when a barricade was lifted for a police van to pass, a bike sneaked through. The officer on duty gave chase, but when he couldn’t catch up, he relayed the number plate over his walkie-talkie. “I’ve informed the next gate. My colleagues will stop him and send him out,” he said. “This is happening quite often.”
IB Block
IB Block was a phenomenon this year. The puja, which made its debut on The Telegraph Salt Lake’s list of crowd-pullers last October at number 5, has jumped to number 2 this year with its Dubai-themed pandal.
All, from the police to auto drivers and pandal-hoppers, agreed that this was the most sought-after puja of Salt Lake. Many managed to enter the pandal only after multiple attempts.
One visitor, a 66-year-old resident of DL Block, said he felt breathless in the IB Block queue on Sashthi. “I was suffocating. I couldn’t move forward or backward and felt trapped. With great difficulty, I edged towards a wall and jumped over it,” said Goutam Saha, gasping. “I don’t care if I got hurt slightly, at least I’m alive!”
IB Block
Residents of HB Block who stay on the crossroad with IB Block were hard put to find a single parking spot along the road facing their houses. Autos to rickshaws to cars, all forms of wheeled transport had flocked there. “Stop entry at Bijan Bhavan. The road is jammed,” a traffic policeman instructed over his walkie-talkie on Ashtami night.
IB Block itself was barricaded like a fortress from all sides, and only a resident’s pass spelt “Open Simsim”. A police officer near the Manjusha building entry was going hoarse asking visitors to walk towards Abcos Food Plaza to enter IB Park. “It got so crowded on Saptami that they had to open the VIP gate for general public,” said Utpal Garai, serving paan at Kalpataru Paan Stall by the park. The puja had printed Rs 12,000 worth of VIP passes.
Puja chairman and local councillor Ranjan Poddar said they were learning something new from their experience every year. “This time we increased the number of gates — two entry, four exit gates, with separate entries for VIPs, residents, and emergencies. We also realised the importance of choosing a theme that people can relate to,” said the chairman, who has already started planning next year’s puja.
The puja opened on Tritiya this year, but plan to start from Mahalaya next time. “We want people to enjoy over several days when crowds are lighter,” Poddar said. “The rain didn’t affect us this year. The crowd stayed steady from 5pm to 6am, till the lights went off,” he added.
AK Block
The puja, that was a tribute to filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak in his centenary year, drew two lakh people on Sashthi and four lakh people on both Saptami and Ashtami, according to the Bidhannagar East police station. “But the crowd this year seemed a bit less than last year,” the officer said.
“There were 30 private security guards deployed alongside about 100 of our own volunteers inside the pandals. The area outside was manned by the police. Crowd movement was smooth and there were no complaints from local residents,” said Pradip Banik, joint secretary of the puja.
AK Block
Ashtami seemed the most crowded. “Because the Navami weather was inclement, we had a sizeable crowd on Dashami as well. On Navami, the crowd possibly headed towards restaurants, but they started coming once the weather improved,” he added.
There were 30 CCTV cameras installed. “There was no artificial queue as we had three sides from which the visitors could approach. The crowd flow stayed steady till 5am,” Banik said.
Goutam Sarkar of AA Block was wary of crowds but still dared visit AK Block puja on Navami night. “I’m 78 and cannot jostle with pandal-hoppers so skipped IB Block. AK puja, despite being beautiful, has a manageable crowd, so I came here,” he said.
Vendors at the exit felt the crowd wasn’t as thick as in other years. “It was worse whenever it drizzled or rained, as the crowd vanished and even fewer came for ice cream, said Suman Ghosh of a Kwality Walls stall.
The auto stands at the edge of the block filled up and emptied out quickly. “We’re charging Rs 40 to 50 from AK to IB Block and Rs 30 from AK to FD Block,” said a driver Sagar Saha. “Many are also reserving autos for tours of several pujas, at Rs 350 an hour, and AK is a must-see on this list.”
FD Block
Of all the pujas Vivaan Mukherjee saw this year, the seven-year-old loved FD Block the most. “We had to wait in the queue for an hour, but it was worth it. And even then, this was much less than the crowd in other years,” added his mother, Deboshree, who had come from Sector IV. “This time I’ve found space to sit on the footpath. This is unimaginable on any other Navami night at FD Block.”
In their 41st year, the block had a theme of introspection. Block secretary Abhijit Majumdar confessed that while it was very crowded till Ashtami, Navami was slightly lighter. “We had about 40 private security guards who alternated in two shifts. We had two gates, one for entry from the EC Block side and another for exit towards the Poura Bhavan side. Another was a VIP gate which our residents use,” he said. They had also installed 56 CCTV cameras to monitor the crowd.
FD Block
A police officer at the Netaji statue said they were barring vehicles from the road into the block from 5pm to 2.30am as the street and footpath were overrun by pedestrians and hawkers. “The crowd is robust,” said ghugni seller Luton Paswan, who had taken his family to see New Town Sarbojanin puja on Sashthi. “Both pujas are drawing massive footfall, but the crowd at FD flowing more freely.”
BJ Block
“For the first time since 2017, our theme was entirely original,” said BJ Block’s puja secretary Arghya Pramanik. “In recent years, we’ve recreated landmarks like the Adiyogi Shiva statue and the Rani ki Vav stepwell, but this time, our artiste interpreted nostalgia.”
On Saptami and Ashtami, the crowd hovered around 1.5 lakh, but the models of palanquins and vintage cars drew mixed reactions. “Some felt the lighting was too subdued, but it was a requirement of the theme. Our theme artist, Apurba Mazumder, also created the idol — in a nostalgic sada sari-lal par look,” Pramanik added.
As for the crowd, the block had ensured ingress and egress routes were more than 20ft wide, so no bottleneck appeared anywhere. Nor did they need to use ropes to rein in crowds.
BJ Block
Pramanik also welcomed IB Block’s leap into the big league. “It’s not a competition. Salt Lake was once isolated from the rest of the city, but the more big-ticket pujas we have, the more people will come. Once here, they’ll visit all the major pandals,” he said.
Rickshaw drivers confirmed the business boost. “Normally, we earn Rs 500–600 a day, but during the Pujas, we offer reserved rides for Rs 300 an hour. Visitors wanted to see IB, BJ, AK, FD and AE (Part 1). The entire trip takes four to five hours so we make a killing,” said Bapi Mondal, waiting for passengers outside BJ pandal.
Paramita Chand, a pandal-hopper from BF Block, said she had seen both grand pujas like Chetla Agrani and homely ones like at Sarat Abasan. “But BJ Block’s puja was not only beautiful, it was also well managed. The food court was spacious too, so we could take a break and snack comfortably,” said the college student on Navami evening.