PURI: The Government has set June 25 deadline for completion of majority of repair and restoration works in Fani-ravaged Puri and getting the pilgrim city on its foot to host the Rath Yatra festival of Lord Jagannath on July 4.Chairing the Rath Yatra Coordination meeting here on Thursday, Housing and Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena and Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanav Behera stressed expeditious implementation of restoration and reconstruction works with focus on power and water supply, sanitation and health care.
Officials said, work was on warfooting to restore power supply in the entire city by June 30. It is targeted to provide 50 mega watt power to Puri during the festival, they stated.The major challenge before the administration is tackling water-borne disease in the aftermath of Fani. With diarrhoea cases reported in some parts of the district after the cyclone, measures have been taken to check spread of the disease, said Chief District Medical Officer Amarendranath Mohanty.
The CDMO said 22 health teams would work in rural affected pockets while four teams would operate in the city. The committee directed the CDMO to repair damaged District Headquarters Hospital and resume all emergency services.
The officials of Public Health Department informed that 40 tankers were catering to drinking water needs of the people while 200 stand posts are operating and apart from this 250 tube wells will be installed besides the existing 757 tube-wells to take care of the drinking water needs of people visiting the Pilgrim Town.
Regarding transportation, over 200 passenger buses would ply to and from Puri besides the regular ones till the end of annual event. The operators were directed to display fare charts.As many as 192 special trains would run to and from Puri during the fete and 40 automatic ticket vending machines would be installed while a mobile application will be launched for the pilgrims for ticket booking. All the ongoing repairs at railway station would be completed before June 25, railway officials informed.
Chief Administrator of Sri Jagannath Temple Administration PK Mahapatra said construction of three chariots is going as per schedule. A team would visit Jagannath Banaprakalp sites and file status report within three months. The Banaprakalp sites, which were created by the Government to meet tree logs requirement for the chariots, faced extensive damage during Fani.
On security front, 155 platoons of police personnel, three company each of RAF and QAF besides home guards and other rank officers would be deployed for the fete, informed IGP Soumendra Priyadarshi. New CCTV cameras would also be installed to monitor the crowd, he added.District Magistrate Balwant Singh, SP Umashankar Dash, PCCF and secretaries of departments concerned were present along with delegates of Sri Jagannath Temple Servitor bodies.