Country’s tallest 71 feet Durga idol in Noakhali

The Durga idol was made of clay and it is cement coated placed in districts business hub Choumohoni area which might set the a record for the country in various ways, with the tallest idol and mega budget. The idol-maker who crafted the Durga, Amal Krishna Pal hailed from Shariyatpur expressed his experiences to the Dhaka Tribune. Amal Krisna said: “I have been crafting idols since 1974. The 71- foot- Durga idol is the tallest one I have ever made and also my greatest achievement in my life.” “It took three months and 12 idol-maker worked hard to craft the idol,” he said. Noakhali District Commissioner Badre Munir Ferdous told the Dhaka Tribune that the 71-foot-tall Durga idol is constructed in the memory of 1971 and it is the tallest idol ever in the country. He also admired the artist and Bijoya Puja Udjapan Committee for such initiative. Tapash Saha, secretary of Bijoya Puja Udjapan Committee of the Bijoya Puja Mandap on Chowmuhani College Road of the upazila, the largest in Bangladesh by area, said that it is the tallest Durga idol in the country with Tk 32 lakh budget. Begumganj upazila, once blessed by the presence of Mahatma Gandhi on a communal peace mission, hit the headlines again after it was reported that a 71-foot-tall goddess Durga idol is being made there to celebrate the upcoming largest festival of Bangladesh’s Hindu community. It is being made to celebrate 20 years of the mandap, he added. In 2015, Deshapriya Park in Kolkata hosted the tallest Durga idol and though the idol is the tallest in the world. The 88-foot- tall idol has been made by artist Mintu Pal along with 40 other artists who had been working on the idol and the pandal at Deshapriya Park for over two months.