A stampede tragedy at Chorebagan that claimed 19 lives, poor crowd control, and the fear of a mishap at several other big pandals marked this year’s Durga Puja.
Metro spoke to several people, from pandal hoppers to puja organisers and police, to find out what was wrong this time and what remained like previous years.
Crowd control
The stampede at Chorebagan Sarbojanin Durgotsav Samity allegedly after an announcement to “vacate the pandal immediately” because a portion of the structure “was about to collapse” is believed to have triggered panic, setting off a chain of events that ended in a tragedy on the first Saptami.
The panic inside was aggravated by the rain outside, though it was nothing like Calcutta had not seen in Durga Puja.
While people inside surged towards the exit, others were reportedly reluctant or unable to move out because it was raining outside. The congestion almost blocked the exit even as more visitors continued entering the pandal.
Police sources said a preliminary inquiry into the Chorebagan tragedy pointed to two key failures: the inability of the organisers and volunteers to assess and control the sudden surge in the crowd, and an announcement that allegedly triggered panic among those gathered inside.
“The volunteers and organisers failed to ensure that an adequate numb er of people exited the pandal as the crowd swelled. The situation worsened when sudden rain swept the city and more people sought shelter inside the pandal, adding to the congestion. Stricter crowd regulation by the organisers and volunteers, including preventing people from remaining inside the pandal merely to escape the rain instead of making such reckless announcement, could have helped the committee avert such dangerous build up,” said a senior police official of Kolkata Police.
The crowd management inside a pandal is the responsibility of the puja committee and not the police.
The police are responsible for manning the traffic and control the crowd outside the pandal.
A pandal hopper said he took almost an hour to walk down from in front of Priya Cinema to Tridhara on Saturday. “I was not even in my car but on foot. There was such a huge rush of people that it was difficult to move,” he said.
At least one puja in north Calcutta that draws a large crowd said police deployment outside their pandal was almost doubled after the Chorebagan incident and was kept till Navami.
“We had a meeting with the police and told them that they should not increase civic volunteers because they are not trained to handle the crowd. The police deployment was increased,” said the member of the puja committee.
Puja committees’ assessments are crucial because they draw upon previous years’ experiences; they know how much of a crowd a pandal can accommodate. Several organisers said newer puja committees lacked experience to manage and deliver.
Policing
Policing understandably failed as the state government felt it necessary to bring nine IPS officers for Durga Puja duty in Calcutta, who are no longer posted with Kolkata Police but have had the experience of handling Puja management in past years.
Vehicles caught in a traffic snarl on Beadon Street on Saturday, Saptami. Bishwarup Dutta
Traffic
Alleged lack of planning, coupled with an inadequate assessment of traffic build-up, was a key reason behind the congestion across Calcutta this year, police sources in the traffic department said.
Officers in the department said some senior officers overseeing traffic management lacked experience in handling Durga Puja traffic within Kolkata Police jurisdiction, affecting real-time decisions on diversions and the movement of vehicles.
On Saptami, Central Avenue had to be closed at one point, with diversions through APC Road — an unusual situation during Puja, when the arterial road is generally expected to remain open, even if traffic moves slowly. The disruption reflected the scale of the traffic management challenge, with several major arterial roads choked and pandal-hoppers taking considerably longer to travel between neighbourhoods.
Sources in Kolkata Police’s traffic department also pointed to inadequate preparation, saying a detailed blueprint for managing vehicular and pedestrian movement should have been drawn up well before the festival.
Traditionally, traffic conditions deteriorate in the run-up to Chaturthi as last-minute shoppers, early pandal-hoppers and regular commuters converge on the roads.
However, once Kolkata Police deploys its full traffic force from Chaturthi, movement generally becomes smoother, making it easier to travel between different parts of the city. This year, the usual improvement failed to materialise, with congestion persisting through the festive period.
Weather
A brief but sharp spell of rain on Saptami (Saturday) evening was one of the catalysts for the tragedy at Chorebagan. The rain forced those inside the pandal to stay put, and those outside tried to push their way inside before public announcements warning of a possible pandal collapse triggered the stampede.
The run-up to Durga Puja was rainy. Panchami saw light rain at several places. Sashthi saw light rain in some places.
The sky cleared from Ashtami, and the remaining days were dry.
Food & beverage
Ashtami (Monday) was a pre-announced dry day that did not exempt clubs and star hotels. Restaurateurs ensured there was no deviation from the rule.
While alcoholic beverages were served on Sunday (Saptami) at many bars and restaurants, the last order was around 11pm.
By 11.30pm, the glasses were removed from the tables, said multiple restaurateurs and diners.
The dry day spell of Ashtami was broken at midnight on October 19. “We served no liquor from 11.59pm on October 18 to midnight on October 19. But after that we paid the excise for extended timings and served alcohol till 2am,” said the owner of a lounge at South City mall.
The traditional Park Street restaurants remained packed both for lunch and dinner, as on an ordinary day people had to wait between 30 and 40 minutes for a table.
Flurys was busy, and 10 of the Calcutta outlets operated 24x7 from Shashti to Dashami, said Rajesh Singh, national head of Flurys.
Across the round-the-clock outlets, customers came in well past midnight, especially between 12am and 3am, and again from 6am through noon.
“Durga Pujo has been a very positive period for Flurys, with strong double-digit business growth, driven by higher footfall across our outlets,” said Singh.
Pandal hoppers amid rain at the Nalin Sarkar Street puja on Saturday afternoon. Bishwarup Dutta
Metro
Metro trains were overcrowded, to say the least. Some trains literally had no space left for people to stand. However, more people still tried to get on. The RPF personnel had a tough time controlling the crowd.
Metro railway ferried a record 61.51 lakh passengers across corridors between Panchami and Dashami. The north-south corridor (Blue Line) was the busiest, followed by the East-West Metro (Green Line).
In the same period last year, the count was 46.56 lakh, said an official. However, this year’s festive calendar included an additional day.
On Sashthi (October 16) this year, 12.01 lakh passengers travelled on the Metro. It was the highest-ever count, an official said.
Services on the Blue Line were disrupted for about an hour from 5.30pm on Ashtami evening. It was blamed on a “technical problem” at Tollygunge station. Truncated services ran between Maidan and Dakshineswar stations.