| The government-sponsored festivities will commence on October 4 and conclude on October 13, a day after scion of Mysore Wodeyar's dynasty Srikantadatta Narasimaharaja Wodeyar ends his religious celebrations in the Palace. |
| The state government has released Rs 73 lakh for organising the festivities, while the officials hope to raise another Rs 45 lakh by the sale of gold cards, and the rest through sponsors. |
| Efforts are on to rope in private companies to sponsor a few Dasara programmes. The Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilisers has already agreed to support one of them. |
| Deputy commissioner S Selvakumar said here on Monday that 1,000 gold cards priced Rs 5,000 would be released shortly by the chief minister N Dharam Singh. |
| The gold card holders will have easy and separate access for witnessing the Dasara programmes, including the concluding torchlight parade at the Banni Mantap grounds on October 13. |
| A designated officer will be at hand in case the holder faces any hassles. |
| Besides the gold card, for the first time a passport access at Rs 50 per adult and Rs 25 per child has been introduced. The holder of the card can visit six tourist spots - Palace, Zoo, Chamundi Temple, Karanji Lake, Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary and Brindavan Gardens (KRS) - at a concessional rate on any one day and without waiting in queue. |
| Top national level artistes will render music at the Mysore Palace premises from October 4 to 12. |
| National level teams are being contacted for exhibition football matches. An air show on October 8 is another attraction. |
| Over 1,500 sportspersons will compete in about 14 types of Dasara sports events, besides best physique and adventure sports. |
| A marathon race from the Palace ground to the Chamundi Vihar Stadium via the ring road is another new feature this year. |
| Other programmes during the 10 days comprise poets' meet on October 4, Yuva Dasara cultural events for youngmen and women at Manasa Gangotri Open Air Stadium from October 6 to October 12 and 76-day-long Dasara Exhibition from October 4 to December 18. |
| Top artistes to perform at the Palace grounds are: Balamurali Krishna (Carnatic music), R Visweswaran & Ravi Kiran (Veena and Vichithra Veena), Shimoga Subbanna (Sugam Sangeeth), Begum Parveen Sulthana (Hindustani vocal), Pandit Viswamohan Bhatt (Mohana Veena), T V Shankaranarayan (Carnatic vocal), Hariprasad Chaurasia (Flute), Rashid Ali Khan (Hindustani music), and Dr Padma Subramanyam (Bharatanatyam). |
| City corporation commissioner A B Ibrahim said all the ongoing road works in the city will be completed by this month-end. |
| Police commissioner Praveen Sood said: Now that Mysore has a ring road, traffic passing through Mysore for other destinations will be diverted on this road, to avoid traffic congestion during the celebrations." |
| About naxal threat, he said, "There is no specific intelligence on this. However, there is a general alert about naxalites and terrorists. We are getting 40 experienced platoons from the naxal areas for security purposes during the Dasara." |
| "We expect a bigger crowd, at least double the number of last year," added the deputy commissioner. |
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