PURI: This year too, the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath and His Siblings will be held without participation of devotees owing to the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. Construction of the three chariots, for the grand festival, will begin on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya on Saturday.
Priests will hand over the ‘ajnamallyas’ of the Trinity to the three Biswakarmas (chief carpenters) at the Ratha Khala to begin the construction. The RT-PCR tests of carpenters will be done prior to that and only those who test negative would be allowed to enter the construction yard.
Meanwhile, all preparations have been put in place for the 21-day Chandan Yatra of Lord Jagannath which will also begin sans participation of devotees on Saturday. Around 65 servitors will take part in the festival and passes would be issued to them by the temple administration. The rituals will begin at 3 pm when the deities will be taken to the Narendra Pokhari in decorated palaquins for ‘Chapa Khela’. The deities will return to the Srimandir in a procession at 9 pm.
To prevent gathering around the Narendra Pokhari, Sec 144 will be imposed on all the 21 days of the festivals. Around 10 platoons of police force would be deployed along the route from Grand Road to the water tank, which has been divided into five security zones.