Post News Network
Puri, May 13: With an eye on the heavy flow of vehicles to the holy city during Nabakalebara, extensive arrangements are in place for smooth traffic management. Thirty five parking lots have been identified at different locations here as 10,000 buses, 50,000 four-wheelers and two lakh motorcycles are likely to visit the city during the grand festival.
This was decided at a review meeting, chaired by additional chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, at Circuit House here Tuesday. The parking lots have been identified at Jagannath Ballabh Mutt, Talabania, Puri Zilla School, SCS College, Digabareni Square, Gadadhar High School Square, Yatrika Niwas, BNR Hotel front, premises of Baselisahi police station, Neelachal Ashok, Samanga, Aaurveda College, Baliguali, Samaghar, Indoor Stadium, Matitota, Bhudan Square, Masanichandi Square and helipad. It was stated in the meeting that, work for infrastructure development at these locations is under way. The administration has been asked to hand over the places to police department after completing infrastructure development work by May end.
Besides, 159 fixed cameras and 31 moveable cameras will be installed at Srimandir, Bada Danda (Grand Road), sites near the beach and other areas of the city during Nabakalebara for surveillance. Town police station will serve as the control room to operate these cameras. The Orissa Police Housing Corporation (OPHC) is undertaking the project, which is likely to be completed by June 15.
The meeting also discussed security arrangements for visitors and various aspects of traffic management. The police have formed two rapid action teams to respond to any kind of emergency situation.
It was decided at the meeting to put up barricades on both sides of Bada Danda for two km from Marichikote Square to manage crowd during the festival. A proposal to declare Srimandir area as no fly zone for one month during Nabakalebara was also discussed in the meeting.
There are 16 unsafe buildings near Bada Danda, including seven around Srimandir, the meeting was informed. Out of these, only two buildings have been pulled down by the administration. Padhi directed the collector to take necessary action to make these buildings out of bounds for devotees during Rath Yatra and Nabakalebara.
The meeting also discussed the progress of Malatipatpur bus-stand project. The project, taken up the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration, is nearing completion, the meeting was informed.
The bus-stand will accommodate 700 buses and have facilities for 65 toilets and six restaurants. It will be managed by Orissa State Road Transport Corporation. The meeting deliberated on expansion of Srimandir premises, repair work of temple, requirement of sandalwood, musk, ropes, silken clothes and other items during Rath Yatra.
DGP Sanjeev Marik, home department principal secretary Asit Tripathy, energy department principal secretary and Srimandir chief administrator Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, RDC (Central) Bikash Mohapatra, director of Intelligence Sunil Roy, additional directors general of police Binayananda Jha and Satyajit Mohanty, SPHC CMD Manoj Chhabra, IG of Police (modernisation) Sanjeev Panda, IG (Central) RP Koche, collector Arvind Agrawal, SP Ashish Kumar Singh, ASI superintendent AK Patel and others were present in the meeting.