Puri set for Rath Yatra as heavy rain fails to deter devotees

The chariots of Lord Jagannath and his two siblings will roll along the Grand Road in the seaside pilgrim town of Puri on Thursday, with nearly two lakh devotees already arriving to take part in the annual Rath Yatra despite heavy rain, officials said.

Authorities have put in place elaborate security arrangements to prevent any untoward incident and taken measures to tackle waterlogging along the chariot route.

Puri received 143.8 mm of rain on the eve of the iconic chariot festival, while the weather department has issued a warning for more heavy rain and thunderstorms on Thursday.

Special arrangements have been made to drain rainwater from the Grand Road to ensure the smooth movement of the procession. Devotees will pull the chariots of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra along the route from the 12th-century shrine to the Shree Gundicha temple, around 2.6 km away.

According to a temple official, devotees will begin pulling the chariots at 4 pm after the traditional chariot sweeping ceremony by Puri’s titular king Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb and the visit of Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati.

The temple town has been placed under a multi-layered security cover, with around 13,000 personnel from the state police, central forces, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard deployed. Officials said special emphasis has been placed on crowd control, traffic management and emergency response.

As per the schedule, the rituals to bring the idols out of the temple and seat them on the chariots will take place between 9 am and 1 pm.

Three people were killed and several others were injured in a stampede near the Gundicha temple, considered the birthplace of the sibling deities, during last year’s Rath Yatra.

An official said a special strategy has been prepared to prevent a similar incident this year.