Kolkata Durga Puja: Kolkata’s Durga Puja isn’t just a festival, it’s basically the city’s very own blockbuster season. The pandals, the lights, the gigantic
idols, the themes… everything comes together to create a spectacle that’s hard to match anywhere in the world. And here’s the jaw-dropper: setting up these pandals costs between Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore. Yup, you read that right. That’s roughly what it takes to host the Olympics opening ceremony! To make sure the city’s celebrations stay on point, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a 30% hike in grants for registered puja committees in July 2025, as per India Today report. Each committee now gets Rs 1.1 lakh, and with nearly 45,000 committees in the state, the government is shelling out around Rs 500 crore this year, up from Rs 380 crore last year. And this isn’t a one-off. Over the past six years, the state’s budgeted grants have shot up nearly 45-fold from 2019–20 to 2025–26. Fun fact: the government’s actual spending almost always overshoots the budget. For example, in FY20, only Rs 10 crore was allocated, but they ended up spending Rs 61 crore!
Per-Committee Grants Keep Soaring
It’s not just the total budget, it’s the grants per committee that have gone through the roof. Back in 2018, each committee got Rs 10,000. Fast forward to 2020, it jumped to Rs 50,000, stayed there in 2021, went up to Rs 85,000 in 2024, and now it’s Rs 1.1 lakh in 2025. That’s almost an 11-fold increase in just seven years. Talk about festive inflation!
Also Read: BJP Alleges West Bengal Govt Blocking Durga Puja at Kolkata's Op Sindoor Pandal—Here's What Happened
Kolkata vs Olympics: Who’s Winning?
Now let’s get back to the fun comparison. The Olympics opening ceremony dazzles the world in one night, with performers, pyrotechnics, and stadiums costing thousands of crores. Kolkata’s Durga Puja, on the other hand, spreads the magic over several days, with thousands of pandals, millions of visitors, and an army of artisans, decorators, and vendors keeping the economy buzzing. The government grants, the private spending, the local jobs—it’s a full-blown public-private mega-event, rivaling Olympic-level costs, but with a desi, cultural twist. While the Olympics wows viewers for a few hours, Kolkata turns into a city-wide celebration for weeks.
Budget Overshoots and Court Intervention
Overspending is basically a tradition too. In FY21, the state budgeted Rs 40 crore for puja grants but ended up spending nearly Rs 197 crore—almost 5 times more! By FY25, they planned for Rs 320 crore, but actual disbursement hit Rs 385 crore, a 20% overshoot. And FY26 looks like it might go past Rs 448 crore, especially with Assembly elections around the corner.
Amid all this, the Calcutta High Court stepped in to keep things in check. Only clubs that submitted last year’s utilisation certificates can get fresh grants, and the government has been asked to submit a post-festival report on spending and compliance.
So, next time you’re wandering through a glittering Kolkata pandal, just remember: each light, each idol, each decoration is part of a festival economy that rivals the world’s biggest sporting spectacles—and that’s not even counting the Instagram-worthy memories you make along the way!
