Spiritual pursuits to partying, city all set to welcome 2016

The city is all set to welcome 2016. Thousands of people thronged around Millennium Park, Victoria memorial, Alipore Zoo and other places of interest. 

Interestingly, 3 Robinson Street has become one of the centres of attraction on Thursday when large number of people gathered here to see the house where Partha De had kept the skeleton of his elder sister Debjani for six months. The inquisitive people mostly from the districts started to pour in from the morning to see the wonder house. After the incident came up in media there was a curiosity among a section of people about the house where skeleton of a woman had been kept for many months by his bother. 

All the important destinations in the city like Millennium Park, Princep Ghat, Victoria Memorial, Alipore Zoo, Eco Park, Science City, Nicco Park and Indian Museum have seen huge footfall. People started thronging at Park Street from Thursday evening to take part in the New Year celebration. Park Street decked up with lights and decorations to host the New Year celebration as it has always been a favourite place for the revelers especially during this time. Restaurants on Park Street and nearby areas seemed to have done a good business. Many of the renowned restaurants in the area were filed up and many were standing queuing up outside the restaurant for their turn. 

Eco Park situated in New Town attracted many visitors from the afternoon of December 31. This had prompted the officials to open more ticket counters to handle the huge pressure of visitors. Additional security arrangements were made at Eco Park. Some more security staff was deployed to manage the traffic. Extra parking bays were created there.  

Children wore colourful dresses and found moving around the places of interest with their parents. They even put on New Year hats and colourful sunglasses. Hundreds of people started visiting Park Street and Esplanade area since afternoon.  But the place got flooded with people by Thursday evening. 

There was a rush in city bound Metros. Metro trains that were carrying passengers from Dum Dum and Kavi Subhas were mostly overcrowded from Thursday evening. In various Metro stations additional ticket counters were opened to cope with the heavy rush of commuters. 

Adequate security arrangements were made across the city to prevent any untoward incidents. Police personnel in plain clothes have been deployed at various points. Park Street area has been divided in five zones for better policing. Around 20 watch towers have been erected in different places in and around Park Street. Around 15 police assistance booths have been set up on Park Street while 108 police picket were created across the city. Special police arrangements were made in different flyovers to ease to out traffic congestion. Security has also been beefed up in Churches, temples, various clubs and hotels, important places railway stations. Around 8,000-10,000 police personnel were deployed in Kolkata on Thursday. There were extra Radio flying squad and Heavy radio flying squad in the streets of Kolkata. Kolkata police have issued certain guidelines and instructions to different clubs and hotels. Senior police officers of deputy commissioner rank were also on duty at Park Street till late night. They were found supervising the crowd and traffic management.

Hundreds of people already started gathering at picnic and tourists spots in the state. Hundreds of people from the city reached Digha and many also went to north Bengal. The sea beach in Digha was found packed with tourists. They were found enjoying various cultural programmes organised by the state government at Digha.