The 147th Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath culminated in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Sunday evening with lakhs of devotees lining up along the route to offer prayers amid tight security.
The yatra of the raths (chariots) of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balbhadra and sister Subhadra, pulled by Khalashi community members as per the age-old tradition, started in the morning. The Rath Yatra is taken out on the Ashadhi Beej (second day of Hindu Ashadh month) every year.
The three chariots returned to the temple by 9:15pm after traversing several localities of Gujarat’s largest city, including the Old City and some communally sensitive areas.
A senior police official said more than 22,000 security personnel were deployed to guard the event and some balloon-mounted cameras were put in place to keep a watch on people’s movement.
As many as 4,500 personnel were deployed to walk with the procession along the entire 16-km route while 1,931 personnel managed traffic during the 147th edition of the annual Rath Yatra.
Senior police officials kept a close watch on the procession using 1,733 body-worn cameras linked to a control room.
Besides, 20 drones and 96 surveillance cameras were installed at 47 locations on the route. Nearly 1,400 CCTV cameras installed by shopkeepers on the route were also used for live surveillance.
The procession consisted of decorated elephants, trucks converted tableaux, ‘akhadas’ (local gymnasiums) along with bhajan mandlis. A tableau of the T20 World Cup, which India won recently, and those depicting renewable sources like solar and wind energy were highlights of the procession.
The procession usually consists of 18 decorated elephants, 100 trucks and 30 ‘akhadas’ (local gymnasiums).
Rath yatras were also held in other cities in Gujarat, including Surat.