Puri Jagannath temple to remain closed on New year

Puri: All roads lead to the famous Jagannath temple here on New Year as devotees seek blessings of the presiding deities before starting the new year. However, they will be deprived of this opportunity this time as the 12th century shrine will be closed for three days — December 31, January 1 and January 2.

A meeting of Chhattisa Nijog decided to keep the doors closed for devotees keeping in view the heavy footfall.

“It has been decided not to allow darshan of deities as there might be heavy rush of devotees on New Year. Similar restricitons will also be there on a day preceding and succeding this,” Shree Jagannath Temple Administrator (SJTA) chief administrator Krishan Kumar told media.

January 2 being a Sunday, the temple administration expects heavy inflow of devotees for which the temple will be closed for them. For now also, the deities are out of bound of devotees on Sundays as the temple is sanitised on these days.

Last year also, the temple was closed for darshan due to Covid-19 pandemic.