Puri, May
28: The first high level coordination committee meeting for the July 18 annual
Rath Yatra of the Nabakalebara year that was held on the Wednesday ended
without discussing all the points as pandemonium prevailed after a series of
issues were raised by some temple servitors.
It was
revealed that most of the infrastructure development works for Nabakalebara
ritual of Lord Jagannath, his siblings Balabhadra and sister Subhadra and
Sudarshan remains incomplete till date despite the respective departments’
commitment to complete the job before the deadline.
Maheswar
Mohanty, BJD legislator from Puri and chairperson of the Nabakalebara
Infrastructure Development Committee expressed concern over the issue.
Among other things, the committee
discussed about supply of uninterrupted power, potable water and laying of
drains while important issues such as supply of essentials commodities,
passenger transport by road and railways, security arrangements maintenance of
law and order, post and telegraph service, about construction of parking lots
and information centres could not be discussed in the meeting.
The PHD would provide 58 million
litres per drinking water per day during the festival. It would create 60 deep
and 1400 shallow tube wells besides the existing systems in the city.
The power supply officials informed
that continuous power supply would be provided to the city through two 33KV
stations established at Samagara and Samuka stations.
Members expressed concern over the
outbreak of jaundice and poor health care facility in the city. They alleged
that the district headquarters hospital was unable to provide treatment because
of shortage of staffs and doctors in the hospital.
The ongoing row over construction
and renovation of the existing bus stand at an estimated cost of Rs. 2.4 crore
in the city between the civic body and the PWD has caused inordinate delay
while it was alleged poor work was executed while renovating the holy ponds.
The storm
water discharge lines were yet to be completed while the repairs and
construction of roads were delayed. The committee was informed that the all the
construction work would be completed by June 15.
Special trains
East Coast Railway would ply 200
special trains to Puri during the festival. The ongoing work of the doubling
the tracks to Puri would be completed soon, the railway officials informed.
The
permanent Mella shed for the pilgrim shelter being constructed near the Puri
railway station at a cost of about Rs. 10 crore is nearing completion. The
parking lot at the station and two new platforms have been completed to
facilitate movements of the trains. Efforts were on to run a number of local
trains from Malatipatpur railway station to Puri during the fete. As many as 64
ticket booking counters would operate to cater to the needs of the visitors.
Security
Director
General of Police Sanjib Marik had set deadline for completion of all ongoing
construction related to Nabakalebara preparation work like construction of
parking lots, temporary pilgrim shelter sheds, drainage and sewer lines before
June 15 so that the police security planning could the made out. He was
evaluating the security and other logistic arrangements in a high level meeting
of senior officials and engineers of concern departments on Thursday.
Addressing
media persons, Marik said five layer security arrangements for the Sri
Jagannath temple and Gundicha temple and entire city would be made to ensure
safe conduct of the fete.
An unspecified number of police
personnel including the NSG, RAF and SOG besides bomb detection and disposal
units would be pressed into service. This apart anti-sabotage teams would put
in place to thwart any such attempt.
A total of
190 CCTV cameras were being installed by the police housing corporation across
the city and strategic places to monitor the crowd movement.
A number of CCTVs would be installed
inside the Sri Jagannath temple complex.
This apart all the hotels,
apartments and commercial establishments were directed to install CCTVs in
their facilities.
Baggage
scanners would be installed at the Atharnulla, Mangalaghat and Balighat the
three entry points to the city while two scanners would be installed at two gates
of the main temple besides one at Railway station.
The security
personnel of the Coast Guard and the personnel of marine police stations would
patrol the beach line of Puri in speed boats while air surveillance would be
conducted.
The entire Bada Danda (Grand Road),
the venue for the Nabakalebara Rath Yatra, would be declared as no flying zone
during the fete. An additional helipad would be constructed at Baliapanda area
for landing of VVIP guests. Three air ambulances would be kept in readiness at Talabania
helipads. A state-of-the-art police control room would function from the town
police station, the DGP said.
