SAMBALPUR:With Durga puja knocking at the door, artisans are working round-the-clock to give final touches to the pandals in the city. The festive mood has gripped the city already.At least 64 pandals are being erected across the city. The Puja committees are busy completing the decoration works. Organisers of Budharaja have roped in artists from Rourkela for raising their pandal, which will exhibit various sizes of ‘dhol’ and which has been made of wooden batten, bamboo, thermocol and clothes.
This 70-foot wide and 50-foot high pandal will showcase 26 ‘dhols.’ The Dhanupali Puja Committee, which has carved a niche for itself for its excellent lighting and pandal, has hired artists from Panimora in Bargarh district to make a Silver Palace at an estimated cost of `5 lakh. Ananda Kumar Saraf, the designer of the pandal for Dhanupali, said the height of the pandal is 55 feet and its width is 45 feet. “The artisans are using fibre, silver paints, clothes and bamboo for erecting the pandal. It will attract revellers,” he said.
Similarly, Gobindtola Puja Committee has engaged decorators from Rourkela to create an attractive pandal using deepas (lamps) and sankhas (conch shells) and other materials like sunpack sheet, thermocol, clothes and duplicate pearls. The estimated cost of the pandal with a width of 45 feet and height of 60 feet is `4.80 lakh. This year, the organisers are also laying special thrust on lighting and have allocated at least `5 lakh for lighting.
The organisers of Daleipada are recreating a scary house using plastic bags, bamboo, thremocol, colour and clothes. The artisans are creating the scary house at a meagre cost of `70,000. Apart from artificial skeletons and horrifying sound in the scary house, some local youths will dress up as ghosts.
“The objective of creating the scary house is to attract the children as they will enjoy scary house along with their parents, before paying obeisance to Goddess Durga at the end,” said Daleipada Committee president Bulu Nag.
In Hatpada, the goddess will be worshiped against the backdrop of the wheel of Konark temple made from thermocol. The wheel will have 6-foot long diameter.Like other years, the goddess will be worshipped in Bengali style at Samaleswari Temple, Kalibadi and Pataneswari Temple in the city.