Puri: Shree Jagannath Temple in Odisha’s pilgrim town of Puri will remain out of bounds for devotees from 1 pm on Friday for shifting of almirahs and chests from Ratna Bhandar, the treasury of the Lords.
These will be moved to the Niladri Vihar museum located on the premises of the 12th century shrine. Public darshan of the sibling deities will remain suspended during the exercise when a medical team, snake helpline members and a group of iron grill cutters will be kept in readiness, according to Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
Devotees willing to buy Mahaprasad, however, will be allowed to enter Anand Bazaar through the Lions Gate and exit through the north gate, sources said.
The state government, in the SOP for shifting the containers, has approved for cutting the outer door of Bahara (outer chamber) Bhandar to take the chests out as all of them are wider than the door. Besides two iron and two wooden chests, there three wooden almirahs and a steel almirah in the inner and outer treasury.
Earlier speaking to the media, Justice Biswanath Rath, chairman of the committee on Shree Jagannath Temple’s Ratna Bhandar inventorisation and conservation, had said that all wooden almirahs in both the chambers are in severely dilapidated condition and some even broke while being moved to check the presence of anything behind them on July 18.
He added that the broken parts would be taped before being taken to the museum and repaired at a later stage.
The entire process is expected to take around 3 hours. All the ornaments are already securely stored in Khata Sejaghar and Changada Ghara near the strong room.
Once the Ratna Bhandar is emptied, it will be handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which is expected to check for presence of any secret chambers or tunnel using non-destructive technology and repair the cracks and other structural damages in the treasury.
