Kolkata · Durga Puja 2026
The Metro during Pujo
The one form of transport the festival cannot jam. Which lines get you where, and how to use it on a night when everybody else has had the same idea.
Written for Durga Puja 2026 · Last updated 14 August 2026
Why it matters more than anything else
Every road-based mode in Kolkata degrades during Pujo — buses, cabs, cars, all of it. The Metro is underground, unaffected by the traffic plan, and runs to a published timetable. On the peak nights it is not the best option, it is effectively the only reliable one.
It is also the cheapest, by a wide margin, and it goes almost exactly where the pandals are.
The lines that matter for pandal hopping
The north–south line is the pandal line. It runs the length of the old city, and its stations — Dakshineswar and Baranagar in the far north, then Shyambazar, Sovabazar–Sutanuti, Girish Park, Central, Esplanade, Park Street, Maidan, Rabindra Sadan, Netaji Bhavan, Jatin Das Park, Kalighat, Rabindra Sarobar, Tollygunge and on south to Garia — drop you inside one cluster after another.
The east–west line runs from Howrah under the river through the centre and out to Salt Lake and Sector V, which is what makes the eastern block pujas reachable without a car.
The newer southern and south-western lines extend the reach further. Which sections are running, and how far, changes as construction finishes — check the current network map rather than an old one.
Using it on a peak night
Services run extended hours during the five days, and on the busiest nights very late indeed. The exact timings are announced by Metro Railway Kolkata shortly before the festival each year and change from year to year — check them on the day rather than trusting anything written in advance, including this page.
Buy a stored-value card or a token in advance if you can; the token queues at Shyambazar and Kalighat on Ashtami are their own event. Some stations restrict entry or make platforms one-way when they get full, and station staff will send you to a different exit than the one you wanted. Follow them.
Lifts exist at the newer stations and not at several older ones on the north–south line. If step-free access matters, check the specific station.
The practical plan
Use the Metro between neighbourhoods and your feet within them. That is the whole strategy, and it beats every alternative on the peak nights by an enormous margin.
Know the last train before you go out. It is the difference between a long evening and a long walk.
The 12 pujas on this guide
Twelve pujas with confirmed coordinates in North & Central Kolkata, prominent ones first — the zone the north–south Metro line runs the length of.
Every one of these has a confirmed position, so the Route Planner can order them and draw the walk between them.
- AhiritolaB K Paul Avenue, Ahiritola
- Badamtala Ashar SanghaRashbehari Avenue, Kalighat
- Baghbazar Sarbojonin Durgotsab & ExhibitionBagbazar Street, Bagbazar
- Beliaghata 33 No PalliBeliaghata Main Road, Beliaghata
- Bosepukur Sitala MandirBosepukur Road, Kasba
- Chorbagan Sarbojanin DurgotsavMuktaram Babu Street, Chorbagan
- College SquareCollege Square, College Street
- Kashi Bose LaneKashi Bose Lane, Hatibagan
- Manicktala Chaltabagan Loha PattyRaja Ram Mohan Sarani, Maniktala
- Md. Ali ParkMahatma Gandhi Road, College Street
- Naktala Udayan SanghaNaktala
- Nalin Sarkar Street Sarbojanin DurgotsabNalin Sarkar Street, Hatibagan
Read next
Traffic restrictions and one-way plans
For five days the city's road network is rewritten. Understanding the shape of the plan matters more than memorising any part of it.
Pandal hopping after midnight
From about one in the morning the queues collapse and the lights stay on. The only hard problem is getting home.
Cabs and app taxis
Expensive, slow, and frequently unavailable at exactly the moment you want one. Here is when it still makes sense.
Written by Pujo Kolkata. Pandal listings come from the PujoKolkata master dataset, with coordinates from the IndianOil–Kolkata Police Puja Guide and from community-curated puja maps of the city. Nothing here publishes a 2026 theme, a timing or a crowd level for any puja, because none has been announced. Browse every pandal.