A car squeezes past the 64 Pally Puja pandal.
Durga Puja is still two months away but differences of opinion on right of passage have surfaced, underscoring lack of consensus on guidelines for pandals on roads that reflect the changes the city has undergone in the past decade.
Some residents of Hindustan Park in south Calcutta have written to fire brigade and police, articulating their concerns. The owner of a store on the road said the duration for which the pandal blocked a major part of their road was “painful”.
The puja organisers, however, said they had built the pandal adhering to the rulebook. The organisers said they had kept enough space beside the bamboo structure for even an SUV to pass.
“We have followed all the rules set by the authorities. We have left more than 4ft from the boundary of the nearest property. We have also left 6ft free for cars to pass,” said Sutapa Das, the secretary of Hindustan Park Sarbojonin Durgotsab Committee.
Residents of Avalon 56, an eight-storey building next to the pandal, have written to the police and fire brigade alleging that the pandal blocked one of their gates.
The Hindustan Park Puja is organised on a road that is about 30ft wide. A Calcutta High Court order passed in 2009 had said that for roads up to 30ft wide, at least 6ft space should be left free.
The order stated that roads wider than 30ft should leave 10ft space and those below 15ft should leave 4ft. The order also mentioned that the pandals should leave 4ft on all sides from the property lines.
The puja organisers’ account suggests they have met the conditions laid down by the court.
The transformation of what was a quiet residential neighbourhood till about a decade ago into a bustling stretch appears to have drawn more vehicles to the road that now has cafes and handloom stores. The lane running parallel is also a big draw with a popular apparel store and a café.
The puja organisers say they had reduced the width of the pandal to reflect the changes in the volume of traffic. “We have reduced the width of our pandal from what it used to be 10 years ago so that cars can pass beside the pandal,” Das said.
Residents as well as businesses operating out of the road where the puja pandal is built complained that every year, they had to bear with the inconvenience for nearly three months and felt that pandals that were on roads should start closer to Puja.
“Last year, the road remained blocked for almost 100 days. This year, they started the construction of the pandal from end-July. Entire August and September would remain like this,” said Malavika Banerjee, the owner of Byloom, that sells handloom and handicraft.
She added that the dismantling of the pandal took at least five days after immersion. “So it would be middle of October when the road would be completely free. We know that Durga Puja is so important for all of us but the pandal should begin closer to Puja, maybe about 45 days ahead,” said Banerjee.
Das, the Puja committee secretary, reasoned that it took at least two months to build a pandal and they had not started early. “We started the pandal on July 30,” she said.
Architect Abin Chaudhuri, a resident of Avalon 56, said he objected because the pandal created a fire hazard for the apartment. “I would never have objected if ours were a two-storey building. An eight-storey building needs space for fire engines to operate, for the hydraulic ladders to operate in case of a fire. But the pandal has blocked one of the two gates,” he said.
The letter from the residents mentions that “a makeshift bathroom constructed on the footpath to the left of our gate for the entire period poses great hygiene risk”.
A similar problem troubles the residents of Satish Mukherjee Road in Kalighat where the pandal of 64 Pally has already blocked the road near its intersection with Library Road.
The puja, located to the east of Greek church, draws a lot of pandal- hoppers.
A resident said the pandal had left space for one car to pass “with a lot of caution”. Besides, the pandal has been built in a way that blocks both the gates of the Gaudiya Math, located next-door.
“Janmashtami would be celebrated later this month when a lot of people come to the math and they face a lot of difficulty to enter through the narrow passage between the math’s building and the pandal,” said one resident.
He said the residents had often requested the organisers to keep more space free for pedestrians as well as cars.
Kumar Saha, the chief convener of the puja, could not be contacted by this newspaper despite several attempts.