Puri: Mandal Pujan rituals for ‘Maha Yajna’, the precursor to the inauguration ceremony of Shree Mandira Parikrama Prakalpa, in Odisha’s pilgrim town of Puri began on Monday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to inaugurate the ambitious Rs 800-crore project, easing congestion and enhancing security for pilgrims, on January 17. All government offices, schools, and colleges of the state will remain closed on that day. The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration has invited representatives from 90 religious shrines and institutions across the country to attend the function.
THE PROJECT & AMENITIES
The corridor project incorporates parking areas, Shree Setu (a bridge), Shree Danda, running parallel to Bada Danda to ease pilgrim movement, pilgrimage centre, restroom facilities, clock rooms, and various other amenities for visitors in and around the Jagannath temple, now centred around an expansive 75-metre parikrama, which provides a clear view of the majestic 214.8 ft-high shrine and, its Neelachakra.
The parikrama, work on which started in 2019, includes a seven-metre wide green buffer zone that protects the outer walls of the temple, Meghanada Pacher, and a ten-metre wide inner ‘pradakshina’ path, which is a pedestrian-only path to be used by devotees for parikrama of the temple.
The outer pradakshina comprises of landscape zones, pilgrim amenities, and emergency service lanes.
The 14-m-wide garden had plants integral to Jagannath culture – saptaparni, patali, baula, kadamba, gangasiuli, katha champa, swarna champa and shrubs like katha rangani, swarna ghanti, galphimia yellow carpet, karabira, sugandharaj and kunda malli. The 8-m outer Pradakshina is also covered by trees on either side, which will act as a shaded pathway for visitors/pilgrims.
The 10-metre public convenience zone is located at a distance of 40 m from the temple’s boundary and has nine restrooms, cloakrooms, drinking water fountains, information-cum-donation kiosks and shelter pavilions for shade and rest. There is a4.5-meter service lane for service vehicles and maintenance of the corridor and another 4.5-meter-wide dedicated to shuttle cum emergency lane for any kind of emergency and disaster management.
A 2.3 km-long 4-lane Shree Setu (trumpet bridge) has been built at a cost of Rs 200 crore to provide a direct access to tourists to the multi-level car parking inside Jagannath Ballav pilgrim centre in the town from the Puri NH bypass while avoiding long traffic snarls. A gate ahas been built to welcome the devotees entering Puri through Shree Setu. There is also a View Tower from where tourists can get a glimpse of the entire city.
A 630-metre long road (Shree Danda) has been constructed at a cost of Rs 90 crore to provide a direct connect from the multi-level car parking inside Jagannath Ballav pilgrim centre to Dolabedi (Shree Mandir Parikrama site).
Work is underway on the other components of the project, including a pilgrim reception center, the Raghunandan library, a police control room and command and control centre.
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