Odisha: No Vehicle On T-Bridge To Badamba Singhanath Temple In Cuttack During Jagara Jatra

Cuttack: Movement of vehicles will be banned on the T-Bridge to Singhanathdev temple in Badamba area of Odisha’s Cuttack district during Jagara Jatra on Shivaratri in view of the stampede in which a woman was killed and 8 others were injured last month.

Sources said no vehicles will be allowed on the Badamba-Gopinathpur bridge over the Mahanadi to the shrine during Jagara Jatra on February 18 as a large number of devotees throng the temple on Shivaratri every year.

Vehicular movement on the bridge will be banned from 4 am of February 18 till 7 am of February 19. Devotees can visit the shrine by using the road under bridge, they said.

The restriction comes around three weeks after a 45-year-old woman was killed and 8 others, including several children, were injured in a stampede on the Badamba-Gopinathpur bridge during Makar Mela on January 14.

After the mishap, the authorities had also restricted entry of people on the 3.4km long T-bridge, which connects Singhanath shrine located in the middle of the river, and cancelled all programmes. The bridge was inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in December, 2021.

According to sources, over 1.5 lakh devotees thronged the shrine on the occasion of Makar Mela, which was being held after a gap of two years due to COVID restrictions.

The bridge got chock-a-block resulting in the stampede. Several people also fell unconscious because of the huge rush while many jumped off the bridge to the sand bed of the river and sustained injuries.