Braving the rain since morning, lakhs of people turned up at the central business district on Friday to hear Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee at Martyrs' Day rally.
Trinamool Congress workers and supporters had started pouring into the city since Wednesday to attend the rally and Kolkata witnessed a sea of people when just a few hours were left for Banerjee's address to the gathering. People from different parts of the state mainly from North Bengal had started pouring into the city since Wednesday and they reached the venue early morning on Thursday to secure a seat as close as possible to the podium so that they can clearly watch Banerjee delivering her speech. The entire stretch of the road in front of the podium and Jawaharlal Nehru Road were completely packed with party supporters since morning. Other adjacent roads were also packed with people who came to attend the rally.
Party supporters from districts including Purulia, Bankura, Burdwan and Midnapore reached Howrah Station. While people from other districts including Murshidabad, Nadia, North and South 24 Paraganas reached Sealdah Station.
They marched from the stations towards the venue shouting slogans on the success of the Mamata Banerjee government. The rallies from Sealdah Station passed through SN Banerjee Road to reach Esplanade.
Despite lakhs of people pouring into the city, the Kolkata Traffic Police managed to ensure normal flow of traffic in the central business district within an hour after the rally ended. The police had faced some problems in the morning as maximum numbers of vehicles could be parked in playgrounds as the soil turned mushy due to rainfall. As a result, most vehicles had to be parked on roads. However, the traffic police somehow managed to maintain the flow of traffic as much as possible.
The entire team of the Kolkata Traffic Police including the senior officers was on the streets to maintain proper vehicular movement.
Proper execution of the elaborate plan of the city traffic police on Friday had restored normal flow of traffic within an hour after the rally.
Though there were timely diversions done as and where necessary, the police had managed to keep the traffic rolling. However, there was no such traffic congestion in other parts of the city apart from the central business district.
V Solomon Nesakumar, Deputy Commissioner (Traffic), said: "The roads through which the vehicles had to pass while leaving the city was known to us and accordingly, those thoroughfares were kept clear. As a result, it had become possible to make the flow of traffic normal as early as possible." Many people had also availed Metro services to reach their destinations on Friday.