Puri all set to welcome tourists for New Year’s Eve

Puri, Dec 30: Temple town Puri is bustling with a lot of activity while welcoming pilgrims and tourists, who are increasingly flocking in large numbers each day.Pouring into the town through rail and road, tourists are here to celebrate the winter vacation and the New Year.Eager to make to most out of the tourism boom, almost all hotels, lodges, holiday homes and government accommodations are full already.This season happens to be the prime time for all connected with the hospitality industry, starting from temple priests to the travel agents and tour operators.Even beggars earn more this month as more pilgrims mean more money.Most of the ordinary budget hotels and lodgings of the city have doubled up their human resources to serve the ever-increasing tourist flow while many unscrupulous hoteliers have hiked their room rent to very high prices, seeing tourists not too hesitant to shell out a little more money for enjoying their vacation.Tourist spots like Chilika lake-Satpara, Ramachandi, Harachandi and Konark have also started experiencing heavy rush of visitors.Boat owners at Chilika too have increased their hiring fees to a great extent.A large number of tourists flock to see dolphins in the lake.The beach too provides some extra entertainment in the form of exhibition of sand art by at least ten prominent sand artists.Hundreds of hands operate delicately on the beach every day to create their choicest images in sand.Anticipating heavy traffic of pilgrims which might go up to a lakh or two, the Jagannath temple administration has geared up all its resources to ensure the timely observance of rituals, while enabling huge crowds to have proper darshan of the deities without any stampede, and then partake Mahaprasad.According to L.D.Pujapanda, the temple PRO one way entry system has been enforced in the town for smooth conduct of traffic.A special drive was being conducted to keep the premises of the temple complex clean and hygienic, while the security arrangements have also been beefed up.Forty seven platoons of armed police personnel have been deployed in and around the temple and the town to ensure safety visitors during the New Year informed the Superintendent of Police Asish Kumar Singh.Pilgrims and visitors are frisked and are made to pass metal detector gates installed at the entry points of the temple.The vendors along the grand road have also been relocated to facilitate the pilgrim traffic.The area between the Marichikot to the temple main gate has been made No Vending and Parking Zone by the police.Besides that, CCTV cameras have been installed at strategic places to monitor the crowd movement, added Singh.