Jorhat, Sept. 30: The Jorhat Provincial Railway Station Durga Puja here is all set to showcase the life and preaching of Swami Vivekananda to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the saint and philosopher.

The pandal and the main gate of the Puja, in its 60th year, have been designed in the style of Bengal’s famous Belur Math — the headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math. Swamiji was one of the closest disciples of Ramakrishna Paramhansa Deb.

The rail station in the heart of the town is a historic one, originally named Jorhat State Railway, which connected Gossaigaon on the Brahmaputra bank with the town when it opened to traffic on December 9, 1884.

The narrow gauge train service used to bring goods from ships that came from Calcutta. In 1915, the name of the station was changed to Jorhat Provincial railway station.

Organising committee secretary Dibyendu Das said they had decided on the theme to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the great philosopher. He said as Durga Puja was an occasion when people came out in large numbers, the committee decided to use this opportunity to spread Swamiji’s teachings.

Das said decorators from Assam and Bengal had been engaged to make the pandal and the gate.

He said a 50-foot screen of 10-foot height on one side of the road leading to the pandal would have an art gallery displaying the teachings and portions of famous speeches of Swamiji in English, Bengali and Assamese, along with his photographs.

Banners, posters, cut-outs of Swamiji will also be displayed and audio CDs of his teachings will be played.

The secretary said in the evenings, audio-visual presentations on the life and teachings of Swamiji will be shown on an LCD screen.

He said on Saptami (Monday), chief priest of Belur Math, Swami Ishatma Nandaji, will deliver a lecture at 7pm on the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda.

Treasurer of the organising committee Biswajit Dey said people and businessmen had contributed generously for the Puja.

He said volunteers would be deployed in large numbers to help the visitors coming to the pandal and also maintain a no-smoking zone within 100 yards of the pandal according to the request from the Central Puja Committee and the Jorhat District Tobacco Control Cell.

“Our volunteers will ask visitors not to smoke cigarettes and consume any tobacco-related products within the no-smoking zone,” Dey said.