KENDRAPARA: The district administration has recently procured 760 cubic feet of sal wood from the forest authorities of Telkoi in Keonjhar for constructing the chariot of Baladevjew temple for the upcoming Rath Yatra.
Executive officer of the 300-year-old shrine Balabhadra Patri said, “We paid only Rs 11,621 as the royalty amount to the Forest department to procure the wood from Keonjhar.”
The 64-foot-high wooden chariot of the Baladevjew temple will be constructed by 45 carpenters. “Of the 14 wheels of the chariot, we will construct four new ones. The rest 10 will be old wheels. We will also use old timber from the previous year’s chariot to build some portions of the rath,” said Patri.
Construction work of the three chariots at Puri Jagannath temple commenced on the auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiya on April 30. But chariot construction at the Baladevjew temple would start on May 23. “The chariot building work has been delayed by three weeks due to late arrival of sal wood from Keonjhar. All artisans are determined to complete the chariot work before Rath Yatra which will be observed on June 27,” he added.
The wooden chariot of Baladevjew temple in Kendrapara town, also known as Tulasi Khetra, is the second biggest of the state. The height of the rath is more than that of the chariots of Srimandir in Puri.
The chariot of Keonjhar Baladevjew temple is the biggest among all the raths in the state.