'Biggest' Durga idol vies for supremacy

Kolkata, Oct 9: With not even a fortnight left for the Durga Puja festivities to begin, a puja committee in South Kolkata claims to be putting up the tallest Durga idol in the world for which it had initiated a teaser advertisement months in advance.

"There have been idols of other deities like Lord Shiva in Karnataka (112 ft) and Hanumanji in Maharashtra (105 ft) but they are all housed in permanent structures while the world's tallest Durga will be here only for five days," Secretary of Deshapriya Park Durgotsav Committee Sudipto Kumar said.

The Puja committee also plans to apply for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the idol whose exact height has been kept under wraps.

The idol is being made with cement and not from traditional clay due to its unprecedented height and there will be fiberglass coating on it, the organisers said.

"Despite being a gigantic structure, the deity will retain all the features of a traditional Durga idol and there will be no compromise in aesthetic and devotional aspects," sculptor Mintu Pal said from the spot where work is going on at a frantic pace.

The fire brigade and police have given their no objection to the idol on the condition that it will not be inside the pandal and the puja committee is following it in "letter and spirit", the organisers said.

According to the fire brigade conditions, such a tall idol cannot be kept inside a makeshift pandal so it will be put up just outside the pandal with the sky as its canopy, the organisers said.

PTI