Approximately 45 lakh people live in Kolkata. The number swells to a crore on a regular day. And, going by the spike in suburban rail traffic, the number of visitors increase by another 30-50 per cent during Durga Puja days when revellers go pandal-hopping.
Only toilets remain in short supply, forcing people to relieve themselves at every nook and corner. The problem may aggravate this year with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) deciding against installing temporary bio or mobile-toilets.
The city has only 100-odd pay-and-use toilets, which is surely not sufficient. Till last year, the civic body installed roughly one bio-toilet, which can cater barely 130 users, at each top 100 destinations during Puja. Another 50-60 were installed by some Puja committees.
In comparison, 80 temporary toilets were deployed for 66,000 spectators during the FIFA U-17 World Cup final in Kolkata in 2017. At recent Half-Marathon in Guwahati, saw 120 mobile toilets being set up.
Clearly, toilets are scarce during the Puja days and the scarcity may aggravate as the civic body left it to the Puja organisers to invest in the same. Sadly, most organisers are rarely bothered about toilets, except for meeting competition norms or sponsorship criteria.
“We have just come to know about the civic body’s decision,” said Bhaskar Nandi, Joint Secretary of Singhi Park puja in South Kolkata. The pandal drew 65 lakh visitors in five days, last year.
Stagnant demand
Biswajit Chowdhuri, owner of the Kolkata based Jeet International, which offers such toilets on rent of ₹15,000 a unit for seven days, reports demand remaining flat over the years, irrespective of the growth in the number of Puja revellers.
Till about two years ago, the Puja rush lasted for five or six days. However, the Mamata Banerjee government now encourages festivities to go on for over a week, in the hope of attracting foreign tourists.
Chowdhuri supplied a total of 130 toilets, including 100 through KMC, last year. With two more days to go, before the rush begins on Panchami on Saturday, he supplied barely 40 toilets this year.
Sumit Das of Feel Free International, another mobile-toilet venfor, acknowledges demand remaining “same as last year”. He supplied 30 such units last year at a daily rate of ₹4000 per unit. “Sadly, toilets are no priority for most Puja committees,” Das said.
Some exceptions
Not all organisers, however, are as lackadaisical about toilets.
“We are lucky to have three pay-and-use facilities near the pandal. We will add four bio-toilets for the comfort of the visitors,” said Sumata Roy, General Secretary, Jodhpur Park puja. The pandal attracted 35,000 footfalls per hour last year
Ekdalia Evergereen, another major south Kolkata draw, claimed that it has made sufficient restroom provisions.