Puri, July 12 (IANS) Ahead of the annual Rath Yatra festival celebrations in Odisha’s Puri, Shree Jagannath Temple Chief Administrator Arabinda Kumar Padhee said on Sunday that preparations for the huge procession are nearly complete and that elaborate arrangements have been made for devotees to do ‘darshan’.

This year the Rath Yatra festival is scheduled to be celebrated on July 16.

Speaking to IANS, Padhee said: “Preparations for this year’s Ratha Yatra are in full swing and have entered the final stage. We have given maximum emphasis to the timely conduct of all rituals of the deities. The schedule for the conduct of the rituals has already been finalised with elaborate arrangements in place.”

“Extensive arrangements have also been made for ‘darshan’ of devotees,” he added.

“‘Nabajaubana Darshan’ will be held on July 14. There is a very restricted time in the afternoon for that particular ‘darshan’,” he mentioned.

The chief administrator of the Jagannath Temple noted that idols will be carried from the ‘Ratna Singhasan’ to the chariots, and will travel to Shri Gundicha Temple.

“Several infrastructural developmental are being carried out at the premises of the Gundicha Temple,” Padhee said.

“We wish that the devotees have an enriching experience of ‘darshan’ at Gundicha Temple, which is the birthplace of the deities,” he added.

Maintaining that the congregation of the Rath Yatra procession will be huge, Padhee said: “Police and district administration along with all other arms of the government, have lent out huge support to the arrangements. Huge number of police personnel is being deployed.”

He added that there will be certain traffic restrictions in view of the procession.

Arabinda Kumar Padhee said that traditional Odissi artworks are being made in front of the ‘Singh Dwar’ of Shri Jagannath Temple as well as near Gundicha Temple.

Diptranjan Nayak, one of the workers involved in making a folk art at the Jagannath Temple premises, said he has been working there for the past six years.

“It is only with Lord Jagannath’s blessings that I got this opportunity. Not everyone gets the chance to serve here, and I feel truly fortunate. I come here to work for the God every year,” he told IANS.

Nayak added: “When we came here, on July 1, it was raining heavily due to which we were stressed that how will the procession take place. All of us prayed to the God and it is the divine power of the ‘Mahaprabhu’ that the rains stopped from that day itself, and we could start working.”

He mentioned that 40 artistes are working at the place right now.

“Some of the artistes are working here (at the Jagannath Temple) and the others at the Mausi Maa Temple,” he said.

Describing the experience of witnessing the Rath Yatra, Nayak said: “This is once in a year that the Lord (Jagannath) will bestow his sight to the devotees (during the Rath Yatra) irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. It is a magnificent spectacle.”

–IANS

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