Order This Week: Delivery Timelines for Puja 2026

Everything from here is arithmetic. Shashthi is 16 October and Mahalaya is 10 October. Working backwards from those two dates gives you every deadline that matters, and most of them are closer than people assume.

The dates

• By 30 September — order anything that needs stitching or alteration. This is now. A blouse needs two fittings and a fortnight, and by mid-October no tailor is taking new work. See the stitching timeline.
• By 5 October — order anything going to a metro address that you want in hand before Mahalaya, with a few days to spare.
• By 8 October — last comfortable date for a straightforward metro delivery with no alteration.
• After 10 October — the festival week itself. Courier networks in Kolkata slow to a crawl through Puja, and in smaller towns effectively stop. Treat anything ordered now as arriving after Dashami.

Three things that catch people out

1. The size. Online orders are not exchanged for size, so there is no week to send something back in. Check the size chart before you order, not after, and call 98305 95959 if you are unsure. It is the single most common reason an outfit does not make it to Ashtami.
2. The blouse. A saree in hand is not an outfit. See above.
3. The fall and pico. A new saree needs its fall stitched and edges finished before it can be worn. Two days, and every tailor is busy.

If you are late

Buy ready. A salwar suit, a co-ord set, an Anarkali or a kurti needs no tailoring and is wearable the day it arrives. So does a kurta. A saree does not.

Or come to a store. Park Street and Gariahat in Kolkata, Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, Jayanagar in Bengaluru, plus Vijayawada and Kanchrapara — you walk out with it, and you can try it on first.

What to order first if you are ordering one thing

The Ashtami piece. Everything else in the week can be bought locally in a hurry; the one saree you actually chose cannot. Silk sarees, Banarasi, The Arya Collection.

The full plan is in the Durga Puja 2026 shopping guide.