An occasional rain and rumble of thunder marked Dashami, the Durga Puja finale, but most Calcuttans did not mind. The spells of rain were brief and not very sharp. Last-day plans remained in place for most.
Calcutta has been spared another deluge, the weather reports suggested.
They ruled out the possibility of heavy rain on Friday. “Rain will continue on Friday, but there is no forecast of heavy rain,” an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
A special bulletin issued by IMD on Thursday said the “deep depression over westcentral and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards”.
It added that the weather system was “very likely to continue to move north-northwestwards and it crossed Odisha and adjoining Andhra Pradesh coasts close to Gopalpur on Thursday evening”.
It will weaken gradually into a depression by 3 October morning.
Under the system’s impact, various south Bengal districts were likely to receive heavy to very heavy rain and experience gusts of wind on Friday, according to the earlier forecast.
A bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department at noon on Thursday said that one or two intense spells of rain (between 20mm and 30mm rain in an hour) were likely till 8.30am on Friday, the first working day after the Puja break.
“Heavy rain (70 to 110mm) very likely to occur at one or two places over East and West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, South 24-Parganas, Murshidabad, East and West Burdwan, and Bankura districts,” the IMD said in a statement.
Thunderstorm with gusts of wind reaching up to 50kmph and lightning was likely to occur at one or two places over East and West Midnapore, and South 24-Parganas, the statement added.
The Alipore Met office recorded 26.6mm of rain between 5.30pm on Wednesday and 5.30pm on Thursday, of which 22.5mm poured from 8.30am on Thursday.
On Thursday, the forecast of rain and intermittent spells of rain kept the roads vacant in most places, but many of the pandals still had a good number of visitors.
A woman who visited Mudiali Club around 3pm said there were only a few hundred people on the road leading to the pandal.
A man who visited Bagbazar Sarbojonin and Ahiritola Sarbojonin between 12.30pm and 2pm said both were crowded, yet not as heavily as in years past.
Some pandals witnessed a steady stream of visitors as the rain stopped.
“There were intermittent spells of rain. The pandal was relatively empty when it was raining, visitors kept coming within minutes of the rain stopping or slowing down,” said Bappaditya Dasgupta, chairman of Kendua Shanti Sangha Puja committee.
“We have decided to keep the pandal open to visitors till Saturday midnight. We will do an eco-friendly immersion inside our pandal on Sunday,” said Dasgupta.
Thursday was the first day of idol immersion.
“Judges Ghat and Baja Kadamtala Ghat were the busiest,” said a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) official.
The immersions will carry on until Sunday, the scheduled day for the Durga Puja carnival on Red Road. “Over 100 Puja committees are expected to take part,” a police officer said.
Eighteen ghats along the Hooghly and 34 ponds in the Behala and Tollygunge areas have been earmarked for the immersion. Over 600 idols were immersed in ghats along the Hooghly till Thursday evening.