Kolkata: Vaccination unit to wedding hall, Covid wheel comes full circle – Times of India

KOLKATA: If you are looking to book a Kolkata Municipal Corporation-run wedding hall at a vantage spot, don’t wait any longer. After a significant drop in the Covid positivity rates, some of the KMC-run wedding halls that were converted into mega vaccination centres are back in business.
The response has been so overwhelming that civic officials running some community halls have been forced to open bookings for weddings to be held next year.
Jai Hind community hall on Harish Mukherjee Road is a favourite wedding destination for many who stay in areas such as Bhowanipore, Alipore, Kalighat, New Alipore and even at Behala, Tollygunge and Jadavpur. The community hall was closed for bookings for months when it had become a mega vaccination centre.
According to a KMC official, after bookings were opened for weddings and other social functions, citizens were queuing up in large numbers. “The response has been overwhelming since we opened bookings. So much so, that we have opened advanced bookings for 2023,” said the KMC official in borough IX.
Jai Hind Bhawan building houses two air-conditioned spacious banquet halls (1,500 square feet each) for holding wedding ceremonies and other social events. The KMC charges Rs 10,000 per day for each of these halls.
Similarly, demands are growing for other ceremonial halls run by the KMC. Monika hall in Alipore and Agomony in Parnasree (Behala) have been witnessing a spurt in wedding bookings.
Among them, Agomony is known for its amenities under one roof. This hall has two large banquet halls (3,000 square feet) which attracts citizens from all over Behala and other parts of south Kolkata. Here, the civic body charges Rs 25,000 for the banquet halls.
According to Ratna Chatterjee, councillor of ward 131, the bookings for Agomony started a couple of months ago and citizens have been queuing up every day since the beginning of February.
“We keep telling residents of Parnasree and its neighbourhoods to book banquet halls well in advance. I am glad that normalcy is returning, as has been evident from the pattern of bookings for Agomony hall. Sometimes we witness a mad rush,” Chatterjee said.
A KMC official posted at the headquarters told TOI that the demand for the civic body’s community halls was soaring with a dip in number of Covid cases. “Everywhere the scene remains the same. Be it Bagbazar or Baghajatin, people are busy booking our halls for weddings and other social functions,” the civic official said.