Bhubaneswar: With the number of devotees visiting the Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri rising steadily, particularly during holidays, the Odisha government on Monday held a high-level meeting to explore an organised queue-based system for ensuring smooth and orderly darshan.
The meeting, chaired by Law, Works and Excise Minister Prithviraj Harichandan at Lokseva Bhawan here, discussed various models presented by IIT Bhubaneswar for regulating the movement of devotees at the temple.
The proposed system envisages crowd management from seven steps and organised movement of devotees through five separate ramps. Once implemented, the system is expected to facilitate orderly darshan for around 8,000 to 10,000 devotees and pilgrims every hour, according to the minister.
Harichandan said a pilot model would be prepared shortly to assess the feasibility and practical implementation of the proposed arrangement. The pilot would subsequently be examined by the Chhatisa Niyoga and the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration before the complete plan is finalised and implemented.
The initiative is aimed at addressing the growing footfall at the centuries-old shrine while ensuring that devotees can have darshan in a systematic and hassle-free manner.
Principal Secretary of the Law Department Dr Pabitra Mohan Samal, Puri Superintendent of Police Prateek Singh, Special Secretary of the Law Department Pranab Kumar Patra, Additional Secretary Shiva Prasad Mohapatra, Works Department Advisor J.K. Das, OBCC Chief Executive Officer Sridhar Raut, technical advisors from IIT Bhubaneswar and other senior officials attended the meeting.
