🪔 Durga Puja 2026 in North 24 Parganas
This guide covers 40 sarbojanin (community) Durga Puja pandals across seven towns in North 24 Parganas — Barasat, Basirhat, Barrackpore, Bongaon, Belgharia, Naihati and Sodepur — all reachable from Kolkata via the Sealdah–Bangaon and Sealdah–Ranaghat suburban rail lines. Every pandal listed here is free and open to the public, run by local committees, sanghas, samitys and clubs rather than a single family.
🗓️ Durga Puja 2026 Dates & Rituals
| Day | 2026 Date | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Mahalaya | Saturday, 10 October 2026 | Devi Paksha begins. Families listen to Birendra Krishna Bhadra's Mahishasuramardini broadcast at dawn and perform tarpan for ancestors — the emotional countdown to the Puja starts here, about a week before the pandals open. |
| Maha Shashthi | Saturday, 17 October 2026 | Bodhon — the goddess is ceremonially woken and invited into the pandal, and the face of the idol is formally unveiled. Most neighbourhood pandals open to visitors from this evening onward. |
| Maha Saptami | Sunday, 18 October 2026 | Kola Bou (the banana-plant consort of Ganesha) is bathed and installed beside the idol, and the main daily worship begins. Crowds start building as the weekend rush meets the first full day of celebration. |
| Maha Ashtami | Monday, 19 October 2026 | The most significant day — Pushpanjali (flower offerings) draws the biggest morning crowds, and Sandhi Puja is performed at the exact junction of Ashtami and Navami, marking the moment Durga is believed to have slain Mahishasura. |
| Maha Navami | Tuesday, 20 October 2026 | The last full day of worship, often closed out with dhunuchi naach — dancing with burning incense braziers to the beat of the dhaak — as committees make the most of the final evening before immersion. |
| Vijaya Dashami | Wednesday, 21 October 2026 | Married women perform sindoor khela before the idol is taken out in procession for visarjan (immersion). It's a bittersweet close — the goddess's send-off back to Kailash, celebrated with as much energy as her arrival. |
📍 Pandals by Town
📍 Barasat (14 pandals)
Barasat, the North 24 Parganas district headquarters, is a major puja hub in its own right, with dozens of pally (neighbourhood) and sarbojanin committees running competing pandals within a few kilometres of the station and courthouse area.
📍 Basirhat (7 pandals)
Basirhat, close to the Bangladesh border in the Ichhamati river belt, has one of the largest concentrations of Durga Puja pandals anywhere in West Bengal — by pandal count it ranks among the state's top few districts after Kolkata, Asansol-Durgapur and Siliguri, and its Vijaya Dashami boat-immersion tradition on the Ichhamati has been observed for well over a century.
📍 Barrackpore (5 pandals)
Barrackpore is one of the older cantonment towns on the Hooghly's eastern bank, with a long civic history and a dense cluster of neighbourhood pujas along and around B.T. Road.
📍 Bongaon (6 pandals)
Bongaon, the border town at the end of the Sealdah line closest to Petrapole, has a puja season shaped by its position as a trading and transit town — committees here range from long-standing barowari pujas to newer neighbourhood associations.
📍 Belgharia (3 pandals)
Belgharia sits on Kolkata's northern fringe, just past Dum Dum on the Sealdah–Ranaghat main line — close enough to the city that its bigger community pujas draw crowds from well beyond the immediate neighbourhood.
📍 Naihati (3 pandals)
Naihati, an industrial and railway junction town on the Sealdah–Ranaghat main line, has a puja calendar closely tied to its mill and colony neighbourhoods, with several committees drawing their names and volunteers from specific local wards.
📍 Sodepur (2 pandals)
Sodepur, a few stops north of Dum Dum on the Sealdah–Ranaghat main line, is a residential town whose neighbourhood pujas have grown alongside its expansion as a Kolkata commuter suburb.