First phase of wood for rath construction of Lord Jagannath dispatched to Puri

Nayagarh: The first lot of wood was dispatched from Dasapalla in the Nayagarh district of Odisha on Friday for the construction of Jagannath Rath Yatra. Sources say, as many as 102 wooden logs were dispatched from Daspalla in three trucks after performing special puja at Mahaveer Mandir.

Around 747 wooden logs are required for the construction of three chariots of Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath and Goddess Subhadra for the annual Rath Yatra festival this year.

In the afternoon, three trucks loaded with the logs will leave for Puri after the rituals at the Jagannath Temple in Nayagarh in the presence of DFO and forest department officials.

According to tradition, the first logs should arrive at Puri for construction of chariots for Ratha Yatra before Saraswati Puja. It is worth mentioning here that Rath Yatra is scheduled to take place on July 7, 2024.

Further it is worth mentioning that, devotees will be allowed to enter the Shree Gundicha temple from the Rath Yatra 2024, informed chief administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Ranjan Das in November, 2023.

While speaking to the reporters after a meeting in this regard with the concerned officials, Das said that the Shree Gundicha Temple’s developmental work will begin soon and it is most likely to take five to six months to complete.

Developmental work at the Shree Gundicha Temple includes the kitchen of the temple, the place where vegetables are cut, the place where people have Prasad and the path on which deities are taken in pahandi, he added.

The SJTA chief further said that the development of the park and a hall is under construction in the park where religious activities can be held all around the year will also be part of the developmental work and it can be termed as the ‘Nabakalebara of Shree Gundicha Temple,’ which is expected to complete much before the Rath Yatra 2024 following which the devotees will be permitted to enter the shrine.