With immersions on one hand, popular pandals still see footfall

Kolkata: Immersion of Durga idols continued at different ghats in Kolkata when thousands of people on the other hand continued visiting famous Puja madaps in the city.

Since morning, different puja organisers were found busy for the immersion of the Durga idols in their Puja mandaps and they were found taking the idols in trucks to different ghats on the banks of river Hooghly amidst beautiful tunes of dhaks.

There was adequate arrangement made by the police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) at all the ghats to avoid any untoward incident during the immersion of idols and to ensure that the river does not get polluted. Mayor Sovan Chatterjee visited Baje Kadamtala Ghat on Monday evening and inspected whether all sorts of preparations were present for hassle-free immersion of the idols. Huge cranes were found at the ghats using which structures of Durga idols were being lifted after immersion to check pollution of the river.

The police have also taken several measures so that people, who come for immersion, do not face any trouble. Constant announcement is done using public addressing system at the ghats so that no one crosses the limit and gets down in river Hooghly.

Officers of the Kolkata Police's River Traffic wing were also on duty on boats to keep a close watch at the situation when the immersion was taking place. Due to immersion, there was restriction on movement of traffic as and when required on roads including Beadon Street towards Nimtala Ghat Street, Strand Road towards Nimtala Ghat Street which were closed from K K Tagore Street; Jadulal Mallick Road towards B K Pal Avenue was closed from K K Tagore Street; Surya Sen Street towards APC Road was closed from College Street, D C Banerjee Street and Sovabazar Street was closed from Rabindra Sarani, Kingsway from Leslie Claudius Sarani, Bidhan Sarani was closed from Shyambazar Five Point and buses were diverted towards K P Road instead of Strand Road.

Meanwhile, there are many Puja mandaps in the city where thousands of people visited on Monday. Most of the Pujas where the idols are still in their mandaps will be participating in the grand carnival at Red Road on Tuesday. So, the people did not want to leave the last opportunity on Monday to get a glimpse of the most popular Durga idols in the city before they are taken for immersion followed by the carnival on Tuesday. There was a rehearsal on Red Road on Monday afternoon for Tuesday's carnival and the traffic movement on Red Road was restricted for around half an hour from 1:45 pm.