Bhubaneswar: If you haven’t been to Mysore or you have been yet missed out to see the elegant Lalitha Mahal palace located near Chamundi Hills built by Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore in 1921, then here is a chance to visit its replica at the Bomikhal Durga Puja pandal in the city.
Around 50 craftsmen from Kolkata have toiled for nearly one and a half month to create a 120 feet wide and 80 feet high replica of the Lalitha Mahal palace.
“Every year Bomikhal Durga Puja Samiti attempts to present something new. This year’s theme is Lalitha Mahal of Mysore. We have attempted to create a 100% replica of Lalitha Mahal. Around 50 artisans from Kolkata have developed this after putting in hard work of nearly one and a half month,” said Bunty Jena, one of the office-bearers of Bomikhal Durga Puja Samitee.
Jena said the replica of Lalitha Mahal is about 120 feet wide and 80 feet high.
“This is Bomikhal Durga Puja Samitee’s 59th year of celebration. For this year’s celebration we have drawn up a budget of Rs 40 lakh,” he added.
As Dussehra is being celebrated after two years of Covid restrictions the organisers have planned a grand celebration with cultural programmes every evening for all the five days of the festival beginning from Mahasasthi and are expecting huge crowds at the pandal.
“We are expecting huge crowds. So accordingly we have made arrangements for parking of vehicles and security of devotees visiting our pandal. For the security of the devotees visiting the pandal we have installed 20 CCTV cameras and over 100 volunteers have been deployed,” informed Jena.
Arrangement for wheel-chair has also been made for senior citizens and specially-abled persons, he added.
The organisers have made arrangements to live stream puja rituals on social media for those who wish to have a darshan of the Maa Durga in their homes.
“We have planned to live stream all the rituals of Maa Durga from Mahasaptami onwards from morning till late in the evening on the Facebook page of Bomikhal Durga Puja Samiti. Devotees will be able to watch all the puja rituals of Maa and have Her darshan sitting in their homes,” Jena said.
Like every year around 3,000 devotees will be offered prasad on Mahaashtami day, he added.
