Coordination Committee for Puri Car festival

Puri, Apr 16 (UNI) All electric poles on both sides of Grand road in this holy city will be dismantled for underground electric line for the Car festival.

A decision in this regard was taken at the Coordination Committee meeting here today, presided over by Revenue Divisional Commissioner Sailendra Narayan Sarangi.

Jagannath temple chief administrator Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said while the Centre would bear 80 per cent of the expenses, the temple administration would pay rest of the total cost for laying underground cables.

The Committee expressed its concern over the large number of doctors post lying vacant in the district headquarters hospital since long and directed the authority to fill up the vacancies at the earliest.

The Committee also reviewed the progress made in construction of three gigantic chariots and stressed on the need to streamline the observance of the ''nitees'' of the deities.

District Police Superintendent Asit Panigrahi apprised the Committee of the police arrangements to regulate traffic and measures taken for the safety of the pilgrims.

Fifty special trains would shuttle between Puri and other important places of the country to facilitate flow of pilgrims and a large number of ticket booking counters would operate, East Coast Railway(ECoR) officials said.

The holy pond 'Swetaganga' would be renovated and repaired at a cost of Rs 14 lakh provided by the NTPC and state environment department, the chief administrator said.

As per the temple schedule the Car festival would be held on July 4, the return car festival on July 12 and the ''Sunavesh'' of the deities on July 13.

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