Park Street turns Walk Street at 5.25 pm, other festive zones vie to pull crowds

Kolkata: The crowd build-up at Park Street began shortly after noon, with families arriving for Christmas lunch at the restaurants that dot this party avenue. By mid-afternoon, revellers joined the crowd and thronged the pavements but traffic continued on the road until 5.25 pm, after which it was shut to vehicles. The sudden influx of revellers, which increased significantly after Alipore zoo and St Paul's Cathedral closed their doors to the public after 4.30 pm, led cops to shut down traffic on Park Street 20 minutes before the time cops had set to turn it into a ‘walk street'. Little Russel Street was shut to traffic at the same time. Middleton Street was shut an hour later. Park Street reopened to traffic at 8.20 pm.Traffic on the stretch from Exide to Dorina Crossing moved slower than usual from 3 pm, its effect falling on CR Avenue, Outram Road, and RR Avenue. Cops shut car movement between JL Nehru Road and Mullickbazar in the evening and allowed pedestrians to take over. Mahua Mukherjee, who came from Delhi to spend Christmas with family, said: "It's a ritual to have lunch at Mocambo and soak in the Park Street vibes on Christmas." "What better way to ri-ng in Christmas than visiting Park Street?" said Sharmistha Mukherjee, an HR executive from Salt Lake. Engineering student Bristi Saha and her friends came to Park Street at 3 pm to avoid the rush.On Wednesday, revellers streamed into Maidan and Victoria Memorial, Lake Town, Elgin Road, Patuli. At Alipore zoo, Eco Park, Nicco Park, Bow Barracks, Lake Town, Thakurpukur, and Duff Road, the turnout was high from afternoon. Priyanka Biswas from Dum Dum said, "We went to Park Street on Dec 24. We will go home after spending the day at Maidan." Kalpesh Shah, a Bhowanipore resident, said, "The Christmas celebration at Park Street seems commercial. We are enjoying the festival in our area." Oindrila Sarkar from Jadavpur, who went to Patuli on Christmas evening, said: "This area has become a miniature Park Street." At the Christmas carnival in Lake Town, Debadrita Pal, a local who came with her daughter Piu, said, "We don't go to Park Street as this carnival gives us a complete Christmas feel." Newer food joints in Kasba and on Sarat Bose Road witnessed a large turnout. Around 8 pm, cops counted each specified channel was catering to hundreds of revellers. Such was the rush that cops on CR Avenue and JL Nehru Road had to switch to manual signalling. While some were disappointed Allen Park and the food stalls were closed on Wednesday, a few said they would visit Park Street on Thursday. (Inputs from Debabrata Shome & Mayukh Sengupta)