Salt Lake Maitri Sangha has lined up music, dance and more for Ganesh puja as they celebrate the festival for the fifth year.

Inaugurated on Wednesday morning, the puja this year pays obeisance to Lord Shiva’s bull Nandi.

The 35ft high pandal has three Nandi faces placed on top of the pandal while the pillars have figures of deities sculpted on them.

“Every year we try to do something new. This year we decided to build a Nandi temple. This is the biggest Ganapati celebration in this area but we never think about competing with others. There can never be any competition among gods. Everyone is offering puja to the deity in his own way. Our 20ft tall Ganesh has been prepared by a female idol-maker from Kumartuli,” said Adarsh Mohta, a member of Maitri Sangha.

The five-day long celebration started off with a bhajan performance on Wednesday and a show by singer Iman Chakraborty on Thursday. On Friday evening, playback singers Abhijeet and Mamta Sharma (of Munni badnaam hui fame) will take the stage. Actresses Rituparna Sengupta and Nusrat Jahan are also supposed to attend.

“Doing Ganesh puja is not novel. According to our customs, no puja can be started before performing Ganesh puja. Earlier it used to be done on a small scale in Bengal. Now we are doing it on a larger scale. Maharashtra has a long tradition of grand Ganesh festival. So people say we are following them. But Durga puja is also being performed there in a grand way. As this club does not have the pressure of organising Durga puja, we decided to perform this puja instead,” said mayor Sabyasachi Dutta, also the president of the club.

“Our main attraction this year is the immersion procession on Sunday. We have invited Puneri Dhol from Maharashtra, a percussion troupe of 35 members. This troupe has performed in both the Agneepath films. Such a procession will be a first in Bengal. Actor Aditya Pancholi will also be present on the day,” he added.

“Till a few years back, Ganesh puja was not that popular in Calcutta and we used to perform the puja only in our houses or in temples. But it feels nice now to see the celebration gathering steam and the interest of people increasing every year,” said Rajkumar Vas, a priest from Burrabazar, who has been performing the puja here for four years.

In the neighbourhood

The 13ft high Ganesh, near PNB Island, worshipped by Yubak Sangha, replicates the idol of Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai.

“Salt Lake has a huge number of non-Bengali residents, so why not celebrate their traditions here too? We started this puja in 2010 and this is the oldest Ganesh puja in Salt Lake,” said councillor Anindya Chatterjee, president of Yubak Sangha. The puja however had not taken place in 2016. “As this puja takes place on the main road, we cannot do something huge but we do the best we can. Every day we have local artists performing Hindi and Bengali songs,” he added.

Bidhannagar Yuva United Club in Baisakhi has organised a fair in front of the pandal on its eighth year.

“This is a big block, so we have a lot of people coming. But by God’s grace, everything happens smoothly. We have residents of the block performing every day. The fair, selling food, clothes and toys, will go on till September 28,” said Bapi Ghosh, secretary of the club.