Puri, May 5: The Puri administration is expecting about 15 lakh devotees to witness the annual Ratha Yatra of lord Jagannath and his siblings scheduled for July 1 next.
A high level meeting of twenty departments connected with the world-famous Ratha Yatra festival was held here on Thursday to chalk out the strategy for the Ratha yatra.
Puri Srimandir temple was closed for the devotees for almost two years due to covid pandemic and the annual Rath Yatra was also conducted without the presence of devotees for two consecutive years. So the Puri Dist. Admin and Srimandir Temple Admin. is expecting a large number of devotees to participate this Ratha Yatra.
Considering the present pandemic position this year it is likely that devotees will be allowed to participate in the festival. In case of spreading of a new wave of pandemic the festival is likely to be observed without participation of devotees as has been done earlier.
Puri Collector Samarth Verma who presided over the meeting has asked the engineers and officials connected with the festival to prepare two plans for the Ratha Yatra festival.
One for celebration of festivals with devotees as the pandemic has reached an endemic situation and the other without devotees if the fourth wave of corona hits the state.
Apart from this, the meeting discussed supply of power, potable drinking water, essential commodities, health and hygiene, sanitation, cleansing of drains, repairs and widening of roads, security arrangements by police and the ongoing construction of three chariots in the construction yard.
The representatives of the Servitor, Temple Managing body members, concerned officials, Puri Superintendent of police K. Vishal Singh and the Srimandir administrator were present at the meeting.
