Welcome gate at Badambadi in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Oct. 3: Subhasish Senapati, a 24-year-old visitor to the Cuttack Pujas, was amazed to see gigantic welcome gates that have been erected by various committees for the ongoing Dusshera celebrations here.

Senapati, who is from Bhadrak, has been attending the celebrations for the past couple of years.

“Cuttack is the best place to witness Dusshera as all roads, leading to various Puja pandals, are jam-packed creating the perfect ambience for festivities,” said Senapati. “This year, various welcome gates to the pandals are gorgeous,” he said.

Devotees from various parts of the state have appreciated the welcome gate by the Shankarpur-Badambadi Puja committee. It has been designed in the form of Maria Palace of China and is proving to be a crowd-puller.

More than 3,000 bamboos, 280 pieces of wooden poles have been used to build the replica and it took around 90 artisans nearly a month’s time to erect the mammoth structure of over 70ft tall.

“We are not into competition with anybody. It has been our tradition of coming up with novel designs for welcome gates as our Puja committee is the devotees’ entry point to the city,” said secretary of the Puja committee Bibhuti Bhusan Jethy.

Jethy said the committee started the tradition of welcome gates in 1988. Since then, new structures and concepts have been made. This time, the committee has spent over Rs 5 lakh to come up with the huge welcome gate.

Apart from this, the replica of Ambikeswari temple, Nepal is also another attraction at Chandini Chhak. The Puja committee here has spent around Rs 4 lakh for the gate.

“The construction of the welcome gate began on Ganesh Chaturthi and it took almost four weeks to complete the structure. A total of 727 bamboos have been used to create the base of the gate,” said Ashok Dalei, an artisan. Around 150 artisans from Dhenkanal, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar were engaged in the construction of the 65ft structure.

The Malgodown Puja committee, which is famous for themes based on historical monuments, has come up with a replica of the Gateway of India. The committee has also come up with six different gates decorated with LED lights.

Similarly, other Puja committees, who are facing problems of space crunch, have also created massive light-decorated gates. The Cuttack Chandi Road Seikh Bazaar Puja committee has erected the replica of the Statue of Liberty.

Over Rs 3 lakh had been spent on the welcome arch, decorated with lights, said secretary of the Seikh Bazar Puja committee K.C. Rath.