Bhubaneswar: The annual terracotta exhibition ‘Mruttika’ commences at the Ekamra Haat in Bhubaneswar today.
The exhibition will continue from 15 October to 22 October where artisans, SHGs, Co-operative societies are displaying and selling their products.
Over 125 stalls have been made and around 250 artisans are participating in the exhibition from 26 districts such as Keonjhar, Jajpur, Balasore, Subarnpur, Baragarh, Rayagada, Khurda, Nayagarh, Dhenkanal, Puri, Mayurbhanj, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Bolangir, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Gajapati, Angul, Boudh, Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Nuapada.
The authorities are expecting to attain a business turnover of Rs.175.00 lakhs during this event.
There are over 10000 terracotta artisans in the State who are producing traditional, decorative and utility terracotta-based items. There are more than 40 clusters of Terracotta in the State, out of which some of the focused terracotta craft pockets are Sonepur (Subarnpur), Barapalli (Baragarh), Haldharpur (Keonjhar), Nuagaon (Khurda), Lunukua (Jagatsinghpur), Kusumi (Koraput), Chintamanipur (Balasore), Trisalaya (Bhadrak) among others.
Five terracotta artisans from Odisha have been conferred with National Level Awards and 18 terracotta artisans have been awarded with State Level Awards.