Repair of chandeliers at Durbar Hall, silver paint for ornamental lamp posts, nurturing of rose garden and topiary to greet visitors during Navarathri underway

Mysuru: With Nada Habba Mysuru Dasara Festival-2024 fast approaching, the Mysore Palace premises is being spruced up, with a fresh coat of paint and repair of chandeliers, that add glitter to the festivities.

For record, a fortnight is left for Navarathri festivities to begin on Oct. 3, preparations are underway for the array of religious rituals that are followed during the festival every year. The Durbar Hall inside the Palace, where the titular Maharaja of the erstwhile Mysore Royal Family still holds Royal Durbar keeping alive the 400-year-old tradition, is also being readied, with the chandeliers being repaired by the workers.

The ornamental lamp posts at the Palace garden, that add glory to the former royal abode, attracting tourists in hordes during Dasara are being repainted in silver colour, with the defunct bulbs replaced with the new bulbs, along with the dome shaped caps of the bulbs.

The rose garden opposite Varaha Swamy Temple near the main gate of the Palace, is all set to bloom in another 15 days, with the plantation of the saplings having been completed and the gardeners tending to them daily, by watering the plants and removing the weeds around the plants.

The topiary with a shape of the words — Dasara Mahotsava-2024 — is also being developed on a slopy surface of the compound wall of the Palace near Balarama-Jayarama gate, attached to the office of Horticulture Department.