The Deshapriya Park puja pandal gates had to be closed temporarily on Ashtami (Tuesday) night as the crowd had surged beyond its capacity and became a cause of concern for police.

No one was reported hurt or injured at the pandal on Tuesday, the police said on Wednesday.

They said that as the crowd at Deshapriya Park started swelling beyond a point, the police activated an “emergency plan” to reduce pressure on the pandal and ensure that there was no incident.

“Our top priority is to ensure the safety and security of the people coming to see the pandals. When we saw the crowd was swelling, we immediately activated our
Emergency Plan as per our existing protocol,” said a senior officer of the traffic department.

The men in white opened a few “loops” in the barricaded route and took the crowd heading for the pandal through a detour to ease the pressure
on the queue.

The police set up barricaded route around all major pujas for crowd management.

“We opened a few loops and made the pandal-hoppers pass through these loops that are usually blocked. The crowd was made to take a detour through a channel of barricades so the pressure did not lead to a stampede-like situation. We also opened a few barricades on Rashbehari Avenue and allowed people to come out of the barricaded channels to release the pressure in the channels,” said a senior officer.

The puja organisers said they had to close the pandal “for some time” because of the rush, also “and the way the police had made the pandal hoppers take a detour”.

Police officers said they did not ask the organisers to shut the pandal but did what they thought was best to handle a crowd surge.

In 2015, at least 11 people were injured in the rush to see an 88-foot idol at the Deshapriya Park pandal.