Source: www.hindu.com
VISAKHAPATNAM, INDIA, August 18, 2009: The youth of Gajuwaka intend to install the tallest Ganesha murti in the state this year. Under the aegis of Sampath Vinayak Youth, a voluntary outfit, over US$50,000 has been raised to engage artistes from Medinapore of West Bengal to make a 54-foot-high murti, to be installed at the Old Gajuwaka Exhibition Grounds. Five artists have been camping here for past two weeks; they are now working without rest to complete the giant task within the next four days.
“We want people to visit our pandal instead of going to Hyderabad to see the tallest murti of the State,” says Mulli Siva, organizing secretary of Sampath Vinayak Youth. “We got the idea to install such a huge murti after seeing the pandal put up at NAD by Vizag Defence Academy – which was the tallest murti in the city last year,” he told The Hindu on Monday.
The murti was made of clay and dry grass. The painting work is next. The organizers say use of chemicals for the murti has been made minimal.