New Delhi: The 46th edition of Rath Yatra festival was organised at the Jagannath Temple at Hauz Khas Village here amidst fanfare and spiritual fervour.

Commencing from the wee hours of the day, all the religious rituals were performed in front of the deities in a pious and solemn atmosphere. Around 50,000 strong Odia and non Odia people gathered here alongwith their family members from Delhi and nearby areas to take part in the grand ceremony.

At around 12.30 p.m., the four deities were taken in Dhadi Pahandi procession to the colourfully decorated chariot stationed at the Grand Road in front of the temple. The entire atmosphere got reverberated with the recitals of hymns, roaring of slogans like Haribol and Jai Jagannath, sounding of Huluhuli, blowing of conch and playing of musical instruments such as Ghanta, Kartala, Mardala, Jhanja and Mrudanga by the devotees. Chief Guest Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat undertook the traditional service of sweeping in front of the Chariot called ‘Chherapahanra’. Other dignitaries present during the occasion were Former Secretary of the Temple Committee Duryodhan Pradhan, Director General of IMD Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, local MLA Somnath Bharati, Dr S.K.Jena, Dr Raghab Dash, Kedarnath Tripathy and Suraj Nayak.

The chariot pulling commenced at around 2.30 p.m. The colourful chariot carrying the four deities onboard was pulled from Hauz Khas Village Road till 2.5 K.M. away to Ansari Nagar via Shri Aurobindo Marg and then taken back to temple premises in the evening. In the late night all the four deities were taken in a procession to the makeshift aunt house at the basement of the temple.

The arrangements were made by the office bearers and members of Temple Managing Committee, which include President Bighneshwar Rout, Secretary Ravindra Nath Pradhan, Abhaya Pradhan, Ashok Pradhan (A), Khirod Patra, Gajendra Samanta, Abhiram Sutar, Ashok Pradhan (B), Jitendra Mohapatra, Ajay Pradhan, Pankaj Mohanty, Nishidha Kumar Das, Rankanidhi Sahoo, Bijay Sahoo, Dillip Kumar Swain, Kishore Samal, Amulya Ojha, Sukanta Sahu, Manager of the Temple Rashmiranjan Behera, Assistant Managers Sashikanta Sahoo and Sanjiv Jena and Priests Sanatan Padhi, Debabrata Mishra, Jagabandhu Dash, Premananda Satpathy, Santosh Panda and Prashant Dash.