The city roads that did not lead to the Brigade Parade Grounds wore a deserted look on Sunday.
Even the favourite holiday hangouts — from parks and museums to restaurants — were emptier than usual.
Private buses were few and far between since morning, leaving commuters waiting at bus stops for a long time. State buses were way too few compared with the demand and at several pockets, even autorickshaws weren’t available till late afternoon and evening.
The Alipore zoo had around 13,000 visitors on Sunday, a drop of over 3,000 compared with last Sunday. Many visitors to the zoo on Sunday were people who came to the Brigade rally, said officials.
A restaurateur on Park Street said: “Lunch was almost empty. People started trickling in as the evening progressed.”
The owner of a popular watering hole said “it felt like a bandh”.
“On Sunday, there is usually a great demand for parking slots for the lunch crowd at restaurants. But today, people largely avoided stepping out,” said a parking attendant on Park Street.
The Science City, Victoria Memorial and Eco Park in New Town were also much less crowded than they usually are on a Sunday in March.
The queue outside the Victoria Memorial was missing.
Many Kolkatans had to delay pre-scheduled work.
Commuters wait for a bus at Park Street-Jawaharlal Nehru Road crossing on Sunday afternoon
Gautam BoseA man who lives in a rented apartment in New Garia was supposed to shift some furniture to his parental home in Behala.
“The transporter called me last night to say that he would not be able to shift the furniture today because of the rally. He said he would do it on Monday,” the man said.
People who had to step out on Sunday had a hard time finding a bus.
“I have been waiting for at least 50 minutes to catch a bus to Howrah. I didn’t realise it would be so bad,” said Marzan Ali, waiting at the Ruby bus stop in the afternoon.
Ali and his friends work at a factory in the industrial estate behind Ruby hospital and were waiting to return to Liluah in Howrah.
Across several other bus stops along EM Bypass, Beleghata Main Road, VIP Road and BT Road, commuters stood waiting for buses in the afternoon.
It was not much different in the evening, even hours after the rally ended. The majority of the private buses continued to remain off the road.
“Almost the entire fleet of buses of several routes in the north, including 78, 234, 214 and 78/1, did not roll out on Sunday,” said Pradip Narayan Bose of the West Bengal Bus and Minibus Owners’ Association.
“The requisition from the rally organisers was way more than what we witness for the July 21 rally (Trinamul’s Martyrs’ Day rally),” he said.
In pockets such as Dum Dum, Nagerbazar, Sinthee and RG Kar Road in the north, autos were scant for most of the day, making the morning and the afternoon take a bandh-like look.
A semblance of a sense of urgency came back on the roads, especially those leading to Salt Lake, in the evening. It was because football fans were headed to the stadium for the high-voltage East Bengal-versus-Mohun Bagan derby.
