By Sharat Jaisingh, Puri, July 17, 2015 : Thousands of devotees have already landed in this holy town of Puri to witness this special spectacle held every 14-19 years when there is an extra month in Ashada as per the traditional calendars. The last Nabakalenara was held in 1996.

Dogged by controversies over Brahma transfer ritual, the State administration is leaving no stone untured to ensure incident free grand festival. The authroties expect congregation of 50 lakh devotees during the nine-day-long Rath Yatra and Suna Besha (Golden Attire of Lord Jagannath and His siblings) subsequently.

The annual yatra, which will commence from the Puri temple, will conclude at Shree Gundicha temple, covering nearly 2.5 km distance, in nine days. The Yatra will conclude on July 29.

Special postal stamps have been launched to mark Nabakalebar festival.

To avert any kind of possible terrorist attack, the coastal guard is already guarding the sea coast. The State government has also deployed over 10,000 policemen for crowd management and to thwart any possible terror-incident.

“We are ready to face any exigencies during the festival. We have made elaborate security arrangement and sections of our police force are in sync with each other round the clock,” said Puri’s superintendent of police Asish Singh.

The authorities have also made elaborate arrangement for free bus service from the newly-constructed Malatipur bus terminus to carry pilgrims to the town, while the Railways ministry has announced running of 216 special trains to ferry passengers from across the country.

While a steady stream of tourists is pouring in, city hotels in Puri are already booked. There are about 500 hotels, 200 lodges, and about 100 ashrams and dharamshalas in Puri, according to the Hotel and Restaurants Association of Odisha (HARO).

Besides, the administration has set up 33 Nabakalebara villages (tourist shelters) across the town to accommodate tourists.

A five-layered security cordon has been put in place in Puri while over 200 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been installed to keep a close vigil on the tourists’ movement in the city.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has deputed four ministers and an army of bureaucrats to supervise the smooth functioning of the festival.

Though a milling crowd was anxiously waiting for the ‘Nabajauban Darshan’ of the deities on the eve of the Rath Yatra, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration’s (SJTA) has debarred the devotees from the darshan of new deities. The SJTA sources said, the darshan, if permitted to devotees, could delay the rituals for a timely and smooth conduct of the Rath Yatra.

On Friday, after the initial early morning and morning hour rituals in the sanctum sanctorum, the four deities — Shri Sudarshan, Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath — are brought to the chariots on the Bada Danda (grand road) individually in a grand procession by the temple servitors.

Then, the prime ritual of the day ‘Chhera Pahanra’ (sweeping of the chariots) is solemnised by Puri Gajapati Dibya Singhdev followed by sprinkling of holy water and sandal.

This is a symbolic gesture by the king to convey the divine message of dignity of labour and equality.

Besides Gajapati, Puri Gobardhan Peeth Shankaracharya Nischilanand Saraswati, along with his disciples will visit the chariots for darshan of the deities. Then the crowd with the help of security personnel will begin pulling the chariot one after another on Saturday afternoon till it reaches Gundicha temple – just little more than three kilometer from Shree Mandir.

The deities will have a nine-day sojourn at the Gundicha temple. And, they return to Shree Mandir only after completion of the nine-day Yatra on the same chariots called ‘Bahuda Yatra’ (return car festival).

The Nabakalebar festival, which started on March 29, will conclude on July 27 after the Suna Besha on the chariots itself.