Chaturthi witnesses huge crowd at Kolkata pandals, traffic in a tizzy

KOLKATA: The Kolkata traffic police used its entire force to counter what they had expected to be one of the toughest assignments this festive season. Yet, the script that Kolkata is witness to on any Chaturthi in the past half-a-decade followed the expected pattern. Large swathes of south and north Kolkata, cops were seen helplessly swatting in the air as bumper-to-bumper traffic honked, fretted and cursed lost appointments and missed trains.A combination of general and local factors contributed to the meltdown, and the cops ran out of answers. To their credit though, the cops did manage to keep the traffic moving, albeit, slowly in most places.
The morning started with a promise. Barring a few stretches near Khanna and Sarat Bose Road, the cops were able to keep the jams at bay. But once some religious processions began in early afternoon around Moulali – there was no stopping. The weekly haath around Khanna too spilled with puja shoppers completely choking traffic. By 5.30 pm, the major pujas were drawing in thousands – Deshapriya Park, Bosepukur Sitala Mandir, College Square, Nalin Sarkar Street, Telegabagan, Chaltabagan and Suruchi Sangha were clearly the favourites. It did not even matter that some biggies – like Mohd Ali Park in central Kolkata and Chetla Agrani in south – had not opened gates. There were hundreds to stand outside the gates and go on a selfie spree.
The Kolkata traffic police Facebook page reflected the situation aptly. It shared Google images of the stretches around Khanna, Kankurgachhi and Girish Park in red – a clear indication that Hatibagan and Gouribari area pujas were drawing in massive crowds. At one point – when religious processions reached Sealdah area – the entire stretch from Prachi Cinema to CR Avenue literally came to a halt. “Due to huge crowd at Hari Saha Market at Khanna, East and West bound traffic of Aurobinda Sarani, North and South bound traffic of APC Road is moving slowly,” the traffic message read.
Similarly, the entire RB Connector connecting to Rashbehari Avenue showed similar red line indicating the crowds spilling over from Badamtala Asar Sangha at Rashbehari Crossing to Bosepukur Sitala Mandir.
While theme pujas were expected to draw the maximum footfall, it was the traditional biggies — like Mohammad Ali Park and College Square in central Kolkata, Baghbazar Sarbojonin and Kumartulli Sarbojonin in north, and Deshapriya Park and Ekdalia Evergreen in the south — that were the surprise crowd-pullers.
Police sources blamed identified several reasons – the loss of road space due to barricades being one. One example is probably CR Avenue. While the barricades around Md Ali Park has been erected - leading to jams especially the intersections - the area near Medical College is yet to be barricaded where traffic is moving smoothly. Two, several arterial roads have been blocked due to Durga pujas. The best examples of the same were visible on Sarat Bose Road and Santoshpur Avenue. “When all vehicles are vying for the same stretch of road, it will lead to jams,” said an officer.
Three, for the third consecutive day – office goers, those out to shop at the last moment and pandal hoppers – jostled for space. While the cops were out in numbers by Chaturthi – around 5000 – most of them stayed put at important intersections trying to keep the roads moving. The police were hardly present inside pandals with the crowd spilling over on the roads. The religious processions only added to the chaos.
Four, the cops were stumped to find that several buses were withdrawn on certain important routes. Bus owners cited traffic jams and “police excesses to try and requisite buses for their puja duties” as some of the reasons. One such route was the Behala Chowrasta- BBD Bag route. As a result, bus stops saw massive crowds spilling on to main routes.
What this means is a review of the allocation of force. "We want to keep the process dynamic. For example, when we found the crowd swelling at Chetla, we diverted some of our men from the Bhowanipore pujas," said a source. DC-traffic V Solomon Nesakumar said all their effort was to keep the four most important roads — CR Avenue, RB Avenue, DH Road and EM Bypass — free. "We are constantly monitoring these roads so that the city does not collapse," said Solomon.