Makeshift Shops On Puri Bada Danda To Be Shut During Panchuka For Smooth Visit To Jagannath Temple

Puri: All makeshift shops Bada Danda in Odisha’s pilgrim town of Puri will remain closed for five days during Panchuka in the holy month of Kartika in view of heavy rush of devotees visiting Jagannath Temple.

In order to ensure proper crowd management and visit of devotees to the 12th century shrine in a disciplined manner, the grand road will be barricaded from Singhadwar up to Marichikote Chhak. The aim is to facilitate a smooth darshan of the deities by devotees.

Smilarly, vehicular movement will not be allowed beyond Market Chhak towards the temple on Bada Danda. This information was given by Puri district Collector Samarth Verma on Tuesday.

Since a very large number of devotees are expected to throng the pilgrim town to offer prayers at Jagannath Temple, the district and police administration have made elaborate arrangements to deal with the situation.

To ensure effective crowd management, volunteers would be deployed in three shifts. Temporary toilets have been installed on both sides of Bada Danda for the convenience of devotees, while arrangements have been made for providing drinking water at the rest sheds. Information on traffic management is being provided on public address systems.

A total of 40 platoons of police force will deployed during Panchuka to step up the security arrangements and for smooth darshan, the Collector added.

DIG (Central Range) Ashish Singh said all necessary measures are being taken to ensure safety and security of the devotees during Panchuka. Steps are also being taken to facilitate smooth movement of devotees to the temple for darshan in a disciplined manner, he said.