Rajendra Prasad Mohapatra

In a bid to beautify Bhubaneswar for the forthcoming FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023, the city administration has readied as many as 35 sculptures to be installed at various strategic locations and junctions of the Capital City.

The sculptures have been made of stone, scrap and other materials that will showcase the art and culture of Odisha during the marquee event that will be organised from January 13 to January 29.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) joined hands with Lalit Kala Akademi to carve those wonderful sculptures. As many as 50 sculptors from the country and abroad have worked for months to construct those sculptures. 

Now, the sculptors are eagerly waiting for the installation of those masterpieces at various places in the Capital City.

The sculptures have been made using different themes. Some of them have the Hockey World Cup as theme while some others depict the State’s rich art, culture, tradition and tourist sites.

Meanwhile, as per BMC Mayor Sulochana Das, the installation of the sculptures will begin in a day or two.

“Almost all the junctions and other major strategic locations will have one of the artefacts. BMC will take care of the installations. It will be done before the commencement of the Hockey World Cup,” said Das.

BMC has gone for an all-out effort to expedite the ongoing beautification work in the Capital City as the event is just left around a week to kick-start.

While the Indian team has already arrived and currently training in Rourkela, teams from abroad have also started reaching Bhubaneswar. Players and support staff of teams from abroad have also started arriving in Bhubaneswar to take part in the mega event. While the Netherlands team reached Bhubaneswar yesterday, players and support staff of Chile arrived at the Capital City on Thursday morning.

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