Kolkata: The race for a quick look at the pandals began well before the city fully woke up on Sasthi, with thousands taking to the streets to explore the season’s biggest attractions. While established crowd-pullers continued to draw revellers in hordes, several first-time contenders, mostly on Kolkata’s outer fringes, emerged as surprise challengers, drawing visitors who braved packed Metro trains and steep public fares.This year, the festival’s centre of gravity has noticeably shifted towards suburban neighbourhoods such as Behala, Nagerbazar, Salt Lake and Patuli. Driven by viral social media reels and word-of-mouth acclaim, visitors are flooding these newly celebrated venues, several of which have already bagged top festival honours to cement their place in the city’s hall of fame.Among such debuts is the golden jubilee edition of the Netaji Sadak Anchalik Adhibasibrinda puja in Muchipara, East Behala. The committee has erected a 28,000-square-foot structure exploring a comparative theme of Indian and Chinese Buddhist architecture. Theme-maker Suvo Sraboni Das has replicated the iconic Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, China.A short distance away, Behala Young Men’s Association and Barisha Sarbojanin have been seeing a surge of visitors with imaginative concepts. At Behala Young Men’s Association, artist Sanatan Dinda’s theme ‘Chhuti’ (Holiday) portrays the lost joys of childhood. The central installation features a whimsical cloud factory where children ride elephants and horses through layers of sky. “The installation highlights how poverty forces some children into work, while growing dependence on mobile phones keeps others away from outdoor play and nature,” said Sourav Roy, the primary organiser of the puja.In New Town, the CA Block Cultural Association has dedicated its ninth-year pandal to the gramophone to revive the magic of classic music culture. “At a time when music is largely accessed through digital platforms and playlists, the pandal celebrates the gramophone record as a once-essential source of entertainment in Bengali homes. The installation pays tribute to artistes who shaped the golden era of recorded music,” an organiser said.In Nagerbazar, Telipukur Yuba Sangha showcased theme artist Bhabatosh Sutar’s ‘Ek Pukur Bhalobasha’, centring its design around an intricate pond setup. “It becomes a storyteller. A witness to generations. A keeper of forgotten afternoons. And perhaps, a reminder of what modern cities are slowly losing,” Sutar explained.The emergence of peripheral venues has redistributed traffic across Kolkata. Traditional hotspots like Sreebhumi, Ekdalia and Suruchi Sangha registered a more manageable crowd on Sasthi. “Till last year, all senior officers were made to sit at control rooms set up near these pujas. The situation has changed this year and the crowd is much more manageable this time. As a result, we have distributed our force equally along a number of places,” said a senior officer of Bidhannagar City Police.Despite the rise of new suburban attractions, Kolkata’s legacy pujas still remain powerful draws. By 10:30 am, Dum Dum Park Tarun Dal in the north and Chetla Agrani in the south had both formed queues of roughly 2,000 visitors. The sudden influx created localised traffic bottlenecks.While law enforcement successfully kept major thoroughfares clear during the afternoon and evening hours, the early morning transition period proved challenging for commuters. “It took me one and a half hours to get home from Tala, instead of the estimated 45 minutes,” noted Soma Ghosh, a resident of Bhowanipore. Police said they were actively tweaking shift schedules to adapt to changing footfall patterns across both traditional hubs and emerging centres.
