Kolkata remained peaceful on Friday as the army and police jointly patrolled localities that were hit by violence during Wednesday's shutdown call given by a minority group seeking expulsion of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen and protesting against Nandigram violence.

Four columns of the army, comprising 360 personnel, conducted a flag march in Moulali, Mullickbazar, Ripon Street, Park Circus, Topsia, Beniapukur and adjacent areas throughout Thursday night, Police Commissioner Goutam Mohan Chakraborty told PTI.

He said no incident was reported from the areas and there had been no arrests.

To a question, he said since Friday morning the army has been kept on stand by and city police would soon review the entire situation and apprise higher authorities in the state.

"The state government will take a final decision on how long the army will stay and whether it is to be withdrawn in phases," the official said.

Some schools, closed on Thursday in the affected areas, were slated to reopen and small shops, located in the interior of the violence-hit areas, also began normal business this morning, he said, adding life in the affected areas was fast returning to normal.

The army was called out to stage flag march on the streets of central Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon after large-scale violence during a three-hour shutdown called by the minority group.

The violence led the state authorities to clamp an eight-hour night curfew in the violence-hit areas from 10 pm on Wednesday night, which was lifted following improvement in the situation on Thursday morning.