Allen Park, the green space on Kolkata’s Park Street that is best known for its Christmas celebrations, will host a Durga Puja for the first time this year, according to Organiser, which reported the plans on 10 October 2026. The puja is being organised by the Kolkata Sanatani Sangha, and preparations began with a bhoomi puja, or ground-breaking ritual, instead of the more usual khuti puja that marks the start of pandal construction.
The park has been synonymous with Christmas since it hosted the Park Street Carnival from 2007, the report said. How old the Durga Puja link is depends on the source: Organiser noted that a small puja was reportedly held in the area more than 200 years ago, while other outlets used headlines saying Park Street would host the festival for the first time in 200 years, and LatestLY gave a figure of 370 years. IndiaX24 therefore treats the “first” as the first organised community puja in the park in modern times, and does not repeat any of the century figures as fact.
The puja committee is led by Shankudeb Panda, a BJP spokesperson, as president, and Navin Mishra, the party’s general secretary in the state, as secretary. Mishra told Organiser that the idea first occurred to him while he was contesting civic elections in 2015. The rituals will begin on Chaturthi, and the main attraction will be an evening aarti inspired by the Ganga aarti of Varanasi, to be held from Chaturthi through Dashami. The programme also includes Baul music and traditions from Purulia, Bankura and North Bengal.
Mishra said: “We have no objection to anyone celebrating their festival. Christmas should be celebrated beautifully,” while adding that Bengali and Sanatani culture deserve representation on the street as well. The remark reflects a sensitivity around the venue, since the park has been linked with Christmas for almost two decades and Park Street is Kolkata’s best-known dining and nightlife stretch. Some political leaders have commented on the idea, but IndiaX24 has not independently confirmed their statements.
The organisers say they expect large crowds, including families from Kolkata and neighbouring districts. Kolkata Police has identified crowd management as a concern and is considering vehicle restrictions on Camac Street during the programmes, according to the report, with traffic diverted via Little Russell Street, Russell Street and Ho Chi Minh Sarani. Commuters and diners on the Park Street side should check police notifications, as diversions were also notified this week for Eden Gardens around a scheduled event on 10 October.
Durga Puja preparations across Kolkata are in full swing, according to LatestLY’s round-up of 10 October. India Post issued a special cover dedicated to the festival’s status as intangible cultural heritage, the same report said, a detail IndiaX24 could not verify from a second source. Durga Puja was added to UNESCO’s list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2021. IndiaX24 will report on the final arrangements and police advisories as the festival days begin. Residents and visitors who plan to attend should watch for official crowd-control announcements closer to Chaturthi.
Featured image: Park Street at the Chowringhee crossing in Kolkata (file photo, 2015). Photo by Biswarup Ganguly, licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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