This year's Durga Puja will be sans bhog, dhaki, fairs and lavish pandals, the steel city’s apex committee that coordinates and monitors the annual festival has decided.

This year, Jamshedpur will host 320 community pujas, said Ram Babu Singh, the general secretary of Jamshedpur Durga Puja Kendriya Samity.

"There will be no new addition. A decision in this regard was taken because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of pujas will remain the same as last year,” he told The Telegraph Online.

The Durga Puja pandal at Jairam Youth sporting Club in Adityapur.

The five-day Durga Puja festival will be celebrated from October 22 to October 26. Kalash Sthapana for Navratri will take place on October 17. Immersion of idols will take place on Maha Dashami on October 26, a Monday.

The samity also issued a list of dos and don'ts for puja organisers.

The Durga Puja pandal at Agrico last year.

All Puja committees have been asked to refrain from serving bhog or any other form of prasad at the puja pandals. Dhakis have been banned, while pushpanjali will take place in a restricted manner with only five persons allowed at a time.

There will also be no lavish pandals, fairs or melas. But there are no restrictions on illuminations.

"The five-day festival will be organised in a simple manner. We have asked Puja organisers to restrict the height of idols to 5 feet, while pandals will be simple and small. We have conveyed this message to all the Puja organisers, " said Singh.

The idol of goddess Durga at Tarun Sangha Puja pandal in Sonari last year.

He said organisers of community pujas in flats and housing societies have been asked to do away with idols altogether. Instead, they have been asked to use photographs of Goddess Durga.

According to Singh, some puja committees have volunteered to distribute free sanitisers and masks at pandals. "We have allowed them," he said.

The idol of goddess Durga at Beldih Kalibari in Bistupur last year.

With two months left for the Pujas the apex body also asked organisers not to indulge in forcible donations.

Singh said all Puja organisers will have to follow Covid protocols of social distancing during the festival.

He said the samity would soon discuss Puja-related issues with the district administration and hold a meeting with various Puja organisers later this month.