Kolkata has received applications for 270 new Durga Pujas within less than two weeks of the Sahaj portal opening, taking total registrations on the single-window platform to 2,318, according to Lalbazar. Police inspections of pandals are scheduled to begin on Monday, with the final number of permitted pujas expected to be settled shortly before Mahalaya.
Applications for new pujas have come from almost every police division, with Jadavpur and East division recording the strongest activity so far. Behala division and south Kolkata are also expected to see new large-scale pujas, including an Allen Park celebration in Park Street.
Police and organisers said many of the new applications were from apartment complexes. Some of these residential communities had been planning to organise pujas for several years, while others are being led exclusively by women, said Sandipan Banerjee of Forum For Durgotsab and convenor of Behala Natun Dal.
The current registration figure is already close to last year’s record. A total of 2,936 organisers applied for permission in 2025, the highest number recorded in the city. Police sources said the current total could challenge that mark once applications close and inspections are completed.
Kolkata hosted 2,757 Durga Pujas in 2023 and 2,701 in 2022, according to figures cited in the report. In Jadavpur, the number of community pujas has risen from 625 in 2021 to 653 applications this year so far. The division recorded 28 new pujas last year and has received at least a dozen new applications in the current cycle.
The Behala division hosted 561 pujas last year, while the Eastern Suburban division had 327. These figures are expected to increase as organisers complete applications on the Sahaj portal, which provides one-point registration for Durga Pujas in Kolkata and across Bengal.
The expansion is taking place as the festival continues to draw large crowds beyond the city’s resident population. More than 43,000 pujas were held across Bengal last year, and an estimated two crore people, including residents, domestic tourists and international visitors, are expected to take part in pandal-hopping across Kolkata during the festival.
Kolkata’s Durga Puja was added to Unesco’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. The growing number of applications therefore adds to the operational demands on police and civic agencies responsible for inspections, permissions and managing the movement of people around the city’s pandals.
Physical inspections of pandals in Kolkata are scheduled to begin on Monday. Authorities are expected to firm up the final number of pujas a day before Mahalaya.
