Puri: Ahead of the world famous Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year, the second batch of timber, which will be used for the construction of gigantic chariots, reached the Piligrim Town on Monday.
A truckload of 13 Phasi wooden logs arrived at Grand Road (Bada Danda) from Daspalla forest range of Nayagarh district.
“We need a total of 72 Phasi logs for the construction of chariots. Only 13 logs have reached so far. We will check the quality of the logs after unloading. More logs will arrive in different phases,” said chariot superviser Sudarshan Mekap.
As per official sources, around 865 wooden logs are required for the construction of three chariots of Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath and Goddess Subhadra for the annual Rath Yatra festival.
However, only 796 new logs will be required this year as 69 remaining logs of last year will be used this time. So far 62 logs have reached Puri and the remaining 734 logs will arrive in different phases.
Earlier, wooden logs of Asan and Dhaura trees were shifted to Puri Srimandir from Nayagarh district.
As per the tradition, the chariot work will begin at Puri from Akshay Tritiya following a ritual at Srimandir.
It is worth mentioning that the Puri Rath Yatra was held without participation of devotees due to Covid-19 pandemic situation last year.
Besides, all the religious intuitions across Odisha were closed as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The Puri Jagannath Temple was reopened in a phased manner from December last year while the devotees were allowed to have Darshan of the deities from January this year.
(Edited by Suryakant Jena)