In the midst of the fear that the pandemic will cast its long shadow on Durga puja this year too, organisers of big-ticket pujas in the city are going ahead with their grand plans keeping in mind the Covid19 protocols.

The preparations for the October festival began for Mohammed Ali Park Puja Committee on Wednesday with the holding of ‘khuti puja’ to mark the beginning of the construction of the grand marquee where the goddess and her progeny will be housed on the festive days.

The puja, which figures prominently in the must-see list of the revellers, has returned to its old venue at the sprawling park in the central part of the city this year. It had shifted to the adjacent fire brigade compound for the past two years due to work on the underground reservoir of the park. Due to the change of place to a narrow confine in 2019, there had been a decline in the number of revellers.

The puja committee secretary, Surendra Kumar Sharma said the Durga puja at Mohammad Ali Park has been known for its artistic presentation over the years and hopefully, there will be no exception this time. “As maintaining physical distance is mandatory due to the pandemic, we had to think of a plan that will help avoid the inevitable crowding near the pandals. We are confident that people will appreciate our effort as always,” he said without elaborating.

The puja, being held in the sprawling Muhammad Ali Park area since 1969, is a crowd-puller and a multiple award winner. Many companies give awards to the puja organisers for various aspects. “If the Covid situation does not deteriorate further we hope people will come this year too following the protocols,” Sharma said.

The Kashi Bose Lane Puja committee which organises the hugely popular concept Durga Puja off Bidhan Sarani, about two km away in the north Kolkata, has also gone ahead with the preparations. The organisers are planning an artistic pandal open on three sides so that the deity can be seen from the outside. The ‘khuti puja’ fot Kashi Bose Lane puja was held recently.

“We are giving more stress on virtual darshan so that people don’t need to physically come to our pandal given that it is Covid time, but see it on their phones and tabs on Youtube in which we will host 3 D images of our pandal and the idols,” puja committee Secretary Somen Dutta said