For close to 60 years, Indian railways ensure Puri Rath Yatra remains on track
May 17, 2023
Puri (Odisha) [India], May 17 : East Coast Railway's (ECoR) Mechanical Department posted at Odisha's Puri has been assigned a special role of keeping Lord Jagannath's chariot in the right direction by the use of special jacks to keep the procession on the desired route.
Every year a team from East Coast Railway accompanies the chariots with equipment to assist in removing any obstacle from their forward path. A team of 40 devoted staff of the Mechanical department of East Coast Railway is tasked with this onus.
The placement and positioning of the three chariots as well as maintaining the distance during the journey are achieved by 40 Member team which inspects and does positioning, and placement, keeping the proper gap between the chariots and their alignment.
"Chariot will be moving from the main temple to the Gundicha Temple and then coming back, it is an 11-day journey. So we as a team follow the chariot align the chariot because if you miss the alignment by a few degrees and when people start pulling the chariot then eventually they will miss it by meters," Aditya Sethi, Assistant Divisional Mechanical Engineer told ANI.
Legend has it that in the early 1960s, one of the chariots got entangled with an electric pole resulting in damage to its axle. Senior officials became clueless and confused about what was to be done. Incidentally, a Railway Officer was present to witness the car festival. He seriously thought about the problem and found an analogy with that of restoration during coach derailment. He suggested doing it by using screw jacks and offered help voluntarily from the Railways. It is since then that East Coast Railways has been rendering the service every year since 1964.
An experienced team of 40 staff from Railways actively participate to place the side of the chariot by side by lifting and shifting to its position using traversing jacks. All the jacks are placed at different places under the axle and operated simultaneously for lifting and shifting of the chariots. About 30 numbers of traversing screw jacks are used for the purpose.
The technicians play the most important role during the 'Dakhina Moda' of the chariots at Nakachana gate on the seventh day of the festival. The railway technicians rotate the chariots by 180 degrees by using jacks.
Rath Yatra runs on a three-km Bada Danda (between Jagannath Temple to Gundicha Temple).
"We have to rotate it by 180 degrees so that it is facing towards the other side and also we can bring it ... apart from this there are certain breakdowns let's say the axle is broken or there is some fault in the wheel or some movement then also the temple administration will be contacting us and we send our staff and get it rectified," he said.
On the day of the Car Festival, the team escorts the chariots during their journey from Shree Mandir to Shree Gundicha Temple covering 3 kms to attend any breakdown. On the 5th day of the ceremony (Hera Panchami), all the 3 chariots are reversed and placed at Nakchana Dwar (exit gate of Shree Gundicha Temple) to prepare for the return journey.
On the day of Bahuda, the team escorts the chariots during its journey from Shree Gundicha Temple to Shree Mandir. On arrival at the Lions Gate, the 3 chariots are placed side by side in the proper position for "Suna Besa". Each chariot is shifted from 6 ft to 8 ft to position them properly. This is entirely done by this team from the Railway led by a Senior Section Engineer of the mechanical department of the Puri Coaching Depot.
