KOLKATA: Tourist spots in the city witnessed huge footfall on Sunday as Kolkatans are already immersed in festive mood with Christmas and New Year around the corner. People were seen spending quality time with their family members at Eco Park, Victoria Memorial Hall, India Museum, Alipore Zoological Gardens and Nicco Park.
City dwellers, in large numbers, were found basking in the sun at the Alipore Zoo with the children playing different games. The number may go up from next weekend. Another attraction in the city, Eco
Park, also saw a huge footfall on Sunday.
The city has already started witnessing cold days with the mercury plummeting to around 13 degree Celsius in most of the south Bengal districts. The Regional Meteorological Department in Alipore said that the cold wave will sweep through the city and South Bengal districts in the next few days. According to an official of the weather office, Kolkata registered the lowest temperature of not only this season on Friday as it dropped to 13. The weather office has warned that the temperature may drop by a few notches further in the next 48 hours, with the cold wave continuing to sweep through the state.
"The same weather conditions will continue for two to three days with temperatures hovering around 12-13 degrees. There is also a possibility that temperature may fall below 10 in the Western districts," a senior official of Alipore weather office said. The Met office further predicted that a cold wave will sweep across East and West Burdwan, Birbhum and Purulia in the next couple of days.
All the tourist destinations across Bengal are also preparing to host a huge number of crowds during Christmas and New Year. Digha, one of the favourite tourist destinations in Bengal, will come up with several attractions during Christmas and new year.
The Digha Beach Festival has now become the centre of attraction with several artists performing and giving a completely new experience to the tourists.
It may be mentioned that after coming to power, the Mamata Banerjee government has taken several steps and developed necessary infrastructure at Digha and it has helped in attracting tourists from different parts of the state and country, as well as from abroad.
The other tourist spots including Mukutmanipur, Bishnupur, Murshidabad and several places in North Bengal are expected to attract many tourists.
All these district administrations are already in the process of beefing up the security arrangements in the tourist places.