Tours of traditional house pujas are being revamped and the popular pandal-hopping packages reintroduced to make this Puja memorable for Calcuttans as well as tourists.
Prompted by the popularity of the traditional house puja tours, the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Limited has increased the number of buses and launches used for these tours. “We have started new packages because these tours have become hugely popular,” said tourism minister Manabendra Mukherjee.
“We also want to encourage private tour operators to tap the market,” he added.
The tourism development corporation will run 54 additional buses and two extra launches compared with last year. A pandal tour and a special package with accommodation at star hotels aimed at tourists have been introduced. “Last year, we had 10 AC buses and only four non-AC ones,” said an official of the corporation.
The tour to the traditional houses will be arranged on September 25, 26 and 27 (Saptami, Ashtami and Navami). There will be two trips each day. Those who undertake the morning trip can have bhog at Sovabazar Rajbati. “There will be a guide on every tour who will narrate historical anecdotes about the traditional houses,” the official said.
The charges for the “sanatani (traditional) tour” are Rs 650 per head on an AC bus and Rs 400 on a non-AC bus.
The corporation is re-introducing the pandal tour after nearly five years. “We had to discontinue with the pandal tours because of operational problems,” said the official. The tours will be conducted from 9am to 5.30pm on Saptami, Ashtami and Navami. There are five routes — two in south Calcutta; one to the old pujas of north Calcutta like Telengabagan, Bagbazar and College Square; one to Lake Town and Dum Dum; and an evening tour to Salt Lake. The Salt Lake tour will start at 6.30pm and continue for three hours. The tours will cost Rs 800 and Rs 550 per person for AC and non-AC buses, respectively.
Three Puja packages ranging from one-night-two-days to three-nights-four-days between September 25 and 28 with stay at star hotels have also been introduced. Charges are from Rs 16,500 to Rs 27,000 per person (excluding service tax).
Trips on the Hooghly and pre-Puja tours have also been planned. There will be three-hour river tours during Puja. The pre-Puja tours are night-long pandal-hopping programmes on Panchami and Sashthi. “Bookings have started and can be done online or at the corporation office in BBD Bag,” said an official.
