The newly built bypass stretch in Puri would now allow vehicles coming from Bhubaneswar and Brahmagiri to directly reach a multi-level parking spot by avoiding city traffic, reducing travel time to the Jagannath temple by up to an hour. The ‘Shree Setu’, a 2.8-kilometre bypass stretch is among the several infrastructure development projects implemented by the Odisha government in Puri ahead of the inauguration of the Jagannath Heritage Corridor project worth Rs 2,700 crore on January 17, news agency PTI reported.
PTI cited officials as informing that the government has revamped the area around the old Puri temple to manage the growing number of worshippers visiting the holy city. They also built a 1.5-kilometre pathway 'Shrimandir Parikrama' that circles the temple under the Jagannath. In a huge relief to the lakhs of devotees who visit the pilgrimage site for darshan throughout the year, Odisha's first trumpet bridge ‘Shree Setu’ would allow them to reach the temple within 10-15 minutes once they enter the stretch, the officials said, as reported by PTI.
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Another official stated that this new bridge which connects four lanes of roads is built on a stretch of 37 acres of land.
Samarth Verma, Puri Collector and District Magistrate told PTI, "The average footfall of devotees to the Jagannath temple post-pandemic has increased. On usual days it is one to two lakh and it goes up to 10 lakh during festivals." "To manage this crowd, we have built the Shree Setu traffic network around the city that will enable the devotees to directly enter a multilevel car parking via a bypass highway and visit the temple without entering the city," Verma added.
These steps were taken based on the recommendations of the state-appointed Commission of Inquiry. The officials said that the committee submitted its report on better administration and governance of the Shree Jagannath temple and its endowments including security and safety measures in 2019.
After the state cabinet approval, the Puri administration began the first phase of its redevelopment and rehabilitation scheme. It focused on clearing around 3 acres for the 'Shree Setu' connecting the newly built Jagannath Ballav Parking Complex and the temple, the officials added.
An official told PTI that the administration has installed a makeshift AC tunnel with benches attached to iron barricades to ease the movement of the devotees even further. The tunnel with the benches segregates around 10 rows which can accommodate 3,000 devotees at a time.
"The 85-metre shaded pathway is placed for the convenience of devotees to save them from the scorching heat while they wait in queue for darshan," he added.
The official also stated that "the redevelopment around the temple complex was required to prevent stampede-like situations during festivals and ease crowd circulation during Parikrama."
The redeveloped complex is now said to include an underground utility pavilion, shelter pavilions, washrooms, and electrical rooms.
The city administration has also built a 4.5-metre-wide dedicated shuttle lane, a 7.5-metre-wide mixed traffic lane, and a 3-7 metre-wide footpath that allows easy traffic flow and decongestion, the officials told PTI. The administration has also constructed a two-wheeler parking and extended pathway, they added.
The grand road (bada danda) that leads to the temple has been widened up to 75 metres. The road remains packed with devotees, especially during the Rath Yatra and the extension would make space for the huge procession with street lights and street furniture lined alongside the roads.
Furthermore, stormwater drainages have been made around the temple complex to drain out the flood water from the city, besides other developments such as a green buffer zone and public conveyance zone.
The officials also told PTI that the much-awaited Puri airport, which will be the second international airport in Odisha, is in its last leg of completion and will become operational soon. They added that the facility is expected to attract more devotees as they would no longer need to travel 1.5 hours from the Bhubaneswar airport to reach the Jagannath temple.
According to the officials, more than 600 shops, residential complexes, and private properties were displaced during the land acquisition for building the heritage corridor and they have been rehabilitated within two kilometres of the temple complex.
"All the affected people were duly compensated as per the rules and many of them have been provided shops in the newly built complexes by the administration," Binaya Kumar Dash, Assistant District Magistrate, Puri said, as quoted by PTI.
Over 17 acres of land, including five villages, has been acquired by the district administration for the Jagannath Heritage Corridor project.
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