Kolkata, Oct 22 (IANS): Huge number of people held aloft placards and banners welcoming him, as Nobel Prize in Economics winner Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee returned to Kolkata to a tumultuous welcome on Tuesday evening.

Banerjee, who flew in to the NSCBI Airport from Delhi, was draped in a scarf and received with bouquets by state ministers Bratya Basu and Firhad Hakim - the latter also the mayor of Kolkata - and driven out of the terminal in a golf cart on his first visit to the eastern metropolis after winning the coveted award.

With photographers and electronic media personnel frantically capturing every moment of the historic occasion, and autograph seekers rushing towards the famed economist, the large posse of police personnel and commandos had a tough time in taking him to the waiting car fitted with red beacons - as a mark of respect for his feat.

"Welcome home Nobel laureate Mr. Abhijit Banerjee" and "Banglai swagato, Nobel joyi, Bangla tomai niye gorbito (Wecome to Bengal, Nobel winner, Bengal is proud of you)" - read the placards which also had big pictures of the Kolkata boy - an alumnus of two of the city's landmark institutions - South Point School and Presidency University (Presidency College when he graduated).

With a pilot car blaring siren, and some youths shouting "Abhijit Banerjee swagatam", Banerjee's convoys started off for his South Kolkata residence - an apartment complex Saptaparni on Balkygunge Circular Road.

On the way, there were large display boards and festoons dotting the route welcoming Banerjee.

He will leave the city for the US on Thursday morning.