Rourkela embraces Hockey World Cup as puja theme

ROURKELA: All set to celebrate Durga Puja with the usual fanfare after a gap of two years, Steel City Rourkela is embracing Hockey World Cup as its theme. Known for its theme-based pandals, the city’s puja committees have come up with innovative ideas to attract people to their pandals. And with the city all set to host the Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup 2023 with Bhubaneswar, the district administration urged puja committees to promote the event at their pandals. 

Rourkela ADM Subhankar Mohapatra, during a meeting held on September 8, urged the puja committees to promote the event at their pandals. One such pandal, being constructed by Sector 1 (Old) Durga Puja Committee will replicate the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Chief coordinator of the committee Suresh Chandra Pradhan said the pandal is 160 feet wide and 95 feet high. “Artisans are busy completing the pandal and the idol,” he said, adding the cost of the project is Rs 18 lakh. 

Pradhan said arrangements for promoting the upcoming FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup-2023 are being made at the pandal. “Since the festival will be celebrated with the usual gusto, crowd management will emerge as a challenge for us,” he said. The Sector 2 Durga Puja Committee is coming up with a replica of Shri Swaminarayan Temple at Toronto in Canada. The 160 feet wide and 100 feet high pandal will be a visual delight, said the committee’s working president A Barik. 

He said the budget of the puja is Rs 20 lakh. Like Sector 1 (Old), the Sector 2 pandal too will have hockey sticks, balls, players’ statues and a replica of the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup. Another popular venue at Sector 6 is replicating a palace while the one at Sector 8 will be based on Ram Temple.Even as the puja committees are incorporating the event at their pandals, their members said they could have done more had the administration’s appeal been issued a little earlier. 

Central Puja Committee (CPC) general secretary Biraj Biswal said the CPC has 98 puja committees under it. The Puja will be celebrated at around 120 locations of the city. He said following request of the city administration to promote the upcoming hockey world cup,  different committees are working on promotion of the mega event with display of LED illumination, installation of dummies of players and flex boards.  In 2018, in order to mark the Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar, the Sector-7 Puja Committee had built the interior and exterior of its pandal in the shape a hockey stadium.