Fervour and gaiety marked the Ganesh Puja celebration on Thursday across the pilgrim city with Puja Committees vying for grabbing eyeballs on decorations of pandals.
Some oraganisers were found giving a new look applying a new concept unlike the previous years.
Although flow of visitors was almost thin on the day due to peak sizzler, however it
didn’t make a difference to school and college going students, who rallied on bike and cycles wearing colourful dresses.
From early morning, they started making a beeline in front of Bata Ganesh temple in the Shreemandira to offer prayers.
Not only students, the devotees with flowers and Bhogs were found standing on queues before the Bata Ganesh and Sidha Ganesh in the Jagannath Temple.
Since the day was very sunny, the post afternoon time started drawing crowds to the Badadanda (Grand Road) to visit various podiums and have a glimpse of Lord Ganapati. More than two dozens of pandals along the 2.5 km Grand Road have been put up. Organisers this year gave importance on architecture of their pandals.
Closer to the Lions’Gate was the Badabazar Ganesh pandal which is oldest organised by the businessmen of the area. Catchy was Ashoka Ganapatya pandal for its architectural maneuver.
Organizers used terracotta to make the pandal look bold and attractive.
Exceptional was pandal by Dinabandhu Binayak Samittee near Janta Cinema.
The Samittee tried best to display the pandal like Siva Linga sitting on a Sakti.
The pink colour given to Siva-Shakti attracted many visitors to take selfies.
Besides, more than hundreds of small to big pandals have been put up across the city. Since Ganapati is treated as foremost deity among the gods and goddesses in Hindu culture, many residents observed the festival in own houses.
For this, the dress shops and fruits stall witnessed a heavy jam till Thursday
morning. Similarly, Ganesh pandals are found dotting the beach of Puri, which were organised by the hoteliers and businessmen.