Bhubaneshwar, July 5, 2013: With a week left for the famous Car Festival at Puri, top brass of administration on Thursday apprised Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik about preparation for organising the biggest religious congregation of the State.

Chief Secretary J. K. Mohapatra and Director General of Police Prakash Mishra made a detail presentation on security arrangements, groundwork for crowd control and preparedness for completing complex rituals of Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath and Devi Subhadra during nine-day-long Car Festival commencing from July 10 next. “Like previous years, elaborate security arrangements would be made for Car Festival.

This year, we will be deploying a fresh force near chariots during evening time.

Since the force to be deployed for Rath Yatra during the daytime would be tired, a separate force would effectively handle rush of crowds during evening hours,” said Mr. Mishra.

Meanwhile, East Coast Railway on Thursday announced to run 82 special trains in addition to 25 pairs of regular trains to Puri to cater to the extra rush of passengers during the nine-day-long extravaganza.

Special trains would be run from different parts of Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Apart from this, six trains will be rescheduled, five to be diverted and six to be extended to Puri. In order to handle large number of pilgrims, 35 additional ticket counters will be opened at Puri railway station. A large number of them, including the one at Bagala Dharmasala, would be functioning round-the-clock.

Similarly, in order to handle the additional rush of pilgrims at other stations, additional booking counters will be opened at peak hours at Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Khurda Road, Berhampur, Balugaon, Khalikote, Paradip, Bhadrak and Jajpur-Keonjhar Road. Addressing a press conference on preparedness of ECoR for Car Festival at Jatni on Thursday, S. K. Mohanty, Divisional Railway Manager, Khurda Road said over 640 railway staff and supervisors operating, commercial, mechanical, electrical, signal and Telecommunication, engineering and medical departments from stations other than Puri would be assisting the railway staff available in Puri. Besides, large contingents of Railway Protection Force (RPF) comprising approximately 500 personnel, sniffer dogs and GRP consisting of about 750 officers and jawans would be mobilised for round-the-clock deployment, Mr. Mohanty said, adding that they would be assisted by 300 home guards. The Khurda DRM said 24 CCTV cameras would be installed covering the entire length and breadth of Puri railway station in order to keep a close watch on anti-social activities.

Source: The Hindu, DT, July 5, 2013.