Preparation meeting for Rath Yatra Mahotsav 2025

Mahesh Dhoundiyal - Delhi

As the world famous Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath falls on 27th June 2025 (Friday), the working committee of Shri Jagannath Mandir, Thyagraj Nagar has decided to celebrate it in a very 
grand scale. This is the 58th Rath Yatra which will be celebrated by the Mandir in the form of 
12-day long Rath Yatra Mahotsav from 28th June to 8th July 2024. During this period when the 
Holy Deities will stay in Shri Gundicha Mandir a colorful cultural evening will be held on each 
day of the Mahotsav at Parking area of Thyagraj Nagar Residential Colony.
On the day of Rath Yatra, the Holy Deities will be taken out in a ceremony called 
“Pahandi Bije” at 11.30 A.M and by 1.00 P.M they will be installed on the Rath. Lord Jagannath 
along with His Brother Balabhadra and Sister Subhadra will proceed to their Aunti’s Place, Shri 
Gundicha Mandir for 10 day stay there. The uniqueness of this festival is that the Lord comes 
to His devotees so that everyone irrespective of caste, creed and class will have darshan of 
Lord Jagannath while on the Rath.
The working Committee has made elaborate arrangement for smooth celebration of 
the festival with least inconvenience to the devotees. Permission of the Police relating to the 
route of the movement of the Rath was obtained much earlier. As per the arrangement this 
time the Rath will move on its original path on the service lane in front of INA Market by the 
side of Aurobindo Marg with least disturbance to the movement of the traffic on the road. It 
will take turn to the left towards service lane of Barapula Road and finally come back to Shri 
Jagannath Marg in front of Thyagraj Indoor Stadium.
The Mandir Management committee has also made elaborate arrangement of serving 
free Annaprasad (Anna, Dalma, Khatta & Kheer) to all devotees (numbering more than thirty 
thousand) celebration will commence with Mangala Arati at 5:30 AM and other associated 
rituals. Rhe worship of Rath (Rath Pratistha) at 9:00 am. There after Pahandi Bije will be held 
at 11.30 am and 01.00 PM after holy Chhera Pahara by the Patorn of the Mandir Shri Sudhakar Mohapatra will give darshan to all and one from the Rath. The chief guest and VIPs will 
have Darshan on the Rath. The sacred pulling of Rath will begin at 3.30 P.M. About 50 thousand devotees are expected to participate in the celebration joining from Delhi and NCR. The 
volunteers from SIS security will be deployed to manage the crowd and to ward off anti-social 
elements to prevent any on words situation during the Rath Yatra, besides cooperating the 
Delhi Police personnel in maintaining peace and order. Free ambulance services will be provided by AIIMS and another by Rockland Hospital to meet the emergency situation with the 
service of Dr. Hemant Saluja and Dr. Sasmita Provision for adequate drinking water has been 
made during the Rath Yatra and arrangement for sprinkling of water on the devotees has been 
made to give them relief from heat and humidity. Special care is being made for free participation of women and children in Pulling of Rath.
A number of VIPs including union ministers, Shri Rajnath Singh Hon’ble Minister of 
Defence, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan Hon’ble Minister of Education & Skill Development 
and Entrepreneurship, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw Ministry of Railways, Information and 
Broadcasting & Electronics and Information Technology, Bansuri Swaraj Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Mrs. Rekha Gupta Chief Minister of Delhi, Neeraj Basoya (MLA), 
Shri Madan Lal (Ex-MLA), Smt. Kusum Lata Ramesh, Hon’ble Councilor, and Film actor, radio 
personality, VJ and television presenter Kuna Tripathy have been invited to join the celebration. 
During the Rath Yatra Mahotsav a number of cultural Competitions like dance, music drawing 
etc among the children and Ladies will be conducted and the winners in the compactions will 
be awarded at the conclusion of the ceremony. On each evening during the nine-day celebration starting from 20th June to 1st July, a variety of entertainment programmes like Odissi, 
Kathak, Sambalpuri dance will be presented by the eminent dance group of Delhi and their 
pupils.
During the Press brief on 19th Jun 2025 on the preparation of the Rath Yatra festival. Shri 
Devananda Sahoo (Vice President), Shri K D Biswal (General Secretary) of the Mandir have appealed to all to cooperate in making the celebration of Rath Yatra Mahotsav a grand success.

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