Saptami had a few people outside pandals. Ashtami evening had a fair turnout on streets and outside pandals. On Navami, Sunday, the crowd count started going up from the afternoon.

Police and puja committees braced for a larger crowd at night.

A college student who went out for a drive with her family on Sunday afternoon said there was such a gathering of people outside a restaurant in Kolaghat that they decided not to stop there and instead returned home to Bhowanipore.

Puja organisers said they had expected more people after seeing the turnout on Saturday evening. “The number of visitors to our puja was more than double on Sunday afternoon and early evening compared to Thursday and Saturday,” Pratik Choudhury, the general secretary of Dum Dum Park Bharat Chakra, said. “We are expecting a stream of visitors well past midnight today (Sunday),”

Saswata Basu, the convener of Hatibagan Sarbojonin Durga Puja committee, said: “We had more than double the number of people outside our pandals on Saturday evening compared to Thursday and Friday. We have had quite a good turnout from Sunday afternoon.”

Sandipan Banerjee, the convener of Behala Nutan Dal, said there was a queue of people waiting to approach their pandal on Sunday evening. “The queue started forming around 6pm. There was a queue on Saturday evening, too. This is, though, nothing compared to previous years… but way better than Sashthi or Saptami, which were dull.”

The crowd everywhere had to stop 10m from pandals. Calcutta High Court had declared all pandals no-entry zones. No visitors will be allowed inside a pandal, the court had said while ordering barricades 5m from the entrance for small pujas and 10m for big pujas.

Many committees have built their pandals in such a way that people can see the idols from far away. Partho Ghosh, the general secretary of Shib Mandir Sarbojonin, said they have had a good number of visitors from the start. “Our idol was visible from beyond 10m. So, people approached the barricades and saw our pandal and the idol. Also, most idols this time would be immersed by Monday or Tuesday; so, people will go pandal hopping today (Sunday).”

The Bagbazar Sarbojanin Durga idol. Sanat Kr Sinha

A VIP Road resident, who went out with her husband and daughter on Sunday evening, managed to see a couple of idols from inside their car. “I could see the idol of Maniktala Chaltabagan and Bosepukur Sitala Mandir from the car. There were quite a few cars that slowed down outside the pandals to catch a glimpse of the idol.”

The queue outside restaurants in the city on Sunday afternoon and outside some popular eateries on the outskirts of the city gave a hint of what might be in store at night.

Arkopriya Pal, a student of Lady Shri Ram College for Women in Delhi, went on a “long drive” with her parents. She had planned to lunch at a Kolaghat restaurant. “Seeing the crowd, we dropped our plan and returned home to Bhowanipore. We ordered food through Swiggy.”

A police officer said his duty had ended by 1am on Saptami night. “It stretched till 1.30-1.45am on Ashtami. I expect to be on the roads till 2.30am today (Sunday).”

The officer said it was in “no way comparable to previous years” when cops had to manage crowds till 3am or 3.30am every day and an additional hour on Navami night. “Still it shows how crowd count has gradually increased.”

The city police deploy most of its personnel on road at night during Durga Puja.