Construction work of the chariot for the annual car festival of 400-year-old Baldevjew temple of Kendrapara is moving at a snail’s pace for want of timber. The 64-foot-high chariot of Lord Baldevjew of the shrine, popular as Tulasi Khetra, is one of the biggest chariots of the State. It is taller than the chariots built for the deities of Jagannath temple in Puri.
Chairman of Kendrapara Municipality and member of the trust board of the temple Dhiren Kumar Sahoo said though construction works of the chariots in Puri started on the auspicious day of ‘Akhsay Tritiya’ on May 13, works here are yet to begin properly here.
“We had written a letter last month to the Divisional Forest Officer of Cuttack to provide us 550 cubic ft of Sal wood to build the chariot. But the forest officer agreed to provide 109 cubic ft which has affected the chariot work. We will use old timber from the last year’s chariot,” said Pratap Kumar Mishra, president of the temple managing committee. On Tuesday, Collector Niranjan Nayak, Cuttack DFO Sudarshan Behera and temple priests held a meeting to chalk out a plan for arranging timber for the chariot. A total of 22 temple carpenters will construct the chariot, having 14 wheels that signify the 14 universes (bramhanda).
This time, 14 wheels of the chariot will be constructed with new timber while the body of the chariot will be built with old timber.
Carpenters need about a month’s time for construction of the chariot and this year the Rath Yatra would be celebrated on July 10. Ten years back, there was a plan to raise Sal and other trees on about 15,000 acres of agricultural land for meeting the timber demand for Rath Yatra. But the plan has been gathering dust in files.