Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Oct 7: The festival season has arrived. And preparations for celebrating Durga puja are on at full swing all around.
Puja committee members are working day and night to finish work on pandals in time to celebrate the festival grandly this year, too.
The Nayapalli Durga Puja committee has employed more than 40 workers and idol makers to work on the pandal for the year. Members of the 28-years-old committee are to make a replica of the Art of Living ashram of spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bangalore.
“The pandal will be 80 feet tall and 100 feet wide. Fibre glass, plywood, wood bottom and cloth will be used to build it,” Navkishor Behera, advisor of the committee, said.
The committee will be spending close to Rs50 lakh on the pandal. “We have not fixed a budget as such. Most items required for construction such as rope, cloth and rice are being donated by groups or people. About Rs 50 lakh would be spent on decoration, the idols and prasad. Like in the past years, idol makers from Midnapur making idols this year too. The idol this year will be 16 feet tall,” he added.
Other attractions associated with the Nayapalli Durga Puja pandal are mina bazaar, Ram lila and Raavan dahan. An 80-foot tall effigy from Nayagada will be lit on Dussehra and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will witness the ritual.
“Since inception the committee has been burning the effigy of Raavan, which is a major attraction. This year we have increased the height of the effigy to 80 feet. A fireworks-display competition will be held and five teams from Pipli, Nimapada, Nayagada, Patrapada and Sunakhedha will participate in it,” Behera said.
Besides other preparations, a platoon of police personnel will be assigned at the site and close to 200 volunteers from different organisations will also participate to manage the crowd in the pandal.
Elsewhere in the city, Rasulgarh Durga Puja Parichalan Committee has pulled out all stops in Durga Puja preparations. Idol makers and craftsmen are working day and night to finish the work on time. This year the pandal is being constructed with wood and plywood to give it unique look, organisers say. “The pandal will be 70 feet tool and 120 feet wide. The pandal will look like a Shiv temple,” Kailash Roul, member of the puja committee, said.
The idol at the pandal will be made by workers of Midnapur. “The idol is 18 feet tall. About 60 percent of the work has been finished. This year we are investing about Rs40 lakh to make it a grand event,” Roul said.
The Rasulgarh pandal, however, won’t feature Raavan dahan on Dussehra, though. “There is no space on the premises after the construction of the Rasulgarh flyover. This is the first time that there would no Raavan dahan,” Roul added.
About 80 volunteers will participate in the event and two platoons of security persons will be deployed to manage the crowds.