Vizag To Celebrate Grand Rath Yatra On June 27

Visakhapatnam: The port city of Visakhapatnam is set to witness Jagannath Rath Yatra celebrations on June 27. Several organisations here will hold chariot festivals at various locations in the city.

The 185-year-old Lord Sri Jagannath Swamy Temple in the old-town area will lead the celebrations, expecting over 12,000 devotees taking part in the traditional chariot procession.

The festival will begin at Town Kotha Road and conclude at Turner's Choultry, carrying forward a legacy that has been celebrated in the city for nearly two centuries.

The Utkal Sanskrutika Samaj, representing the Odia community in Vizag, will conduct their own Rath Yatra, where Lord Jagannath, along with his siblings Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, will be taken in a colourful procession to Sri Gundicha temple at Lawsons Bay Colony.

The deities will remain at the temple for nine days before returning to the main temple on July 4 in a ceremony called Bahuda Yatra.

Iskcon Visakhapatnam will celebrate its 18th annual "Sri Jagannath Ratha Yatra," featuring three separate chariots for the three deities. The mechanised chariots, standing 37 feet tall with collapsible canopies specially brought from Pippli, Orissa, will create an authentic Puri-style atmosphere.

The Iskcon procession will commence at 4:00 pm from the Central Park parking area near the Government Women's College and travel through LIC Building, Ambedkar Statue, Dabagardens, Jagadamba Junction, and Waltair Main Road, concluding at Gurajada Kalakshetram in Siripuram.

The celebration will feature artists from Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, and Orissa performing Kirtan and traditional dances. Over 500 students from various schools and colleges have volunteered for the event, while organisers expect thousands of participants and lakhs of devotees to witness the procession.

Special offerings having more than 501 varieties of dishes are to be offered to Lord Jagannath at the concluding ceremony. The event will end with Maha Sandhya Arati featuring 108 oil lamps and dinner prasadam for all devotees.

Several guests have been invited to grace the occasion, including Union aviation minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu as chief guest, Visakhapatnam MP M. Bharat, and MLAs Ganta Srinivas Rao, Ramakrishna Babu, Vishnu Kumar Raju, Vamsi Krishna Yadav, and TDP president Palla Srinivas Rao.

To facilitate devotees traveling to Puri for the main Jagannath Rath Yatra, East Coast Railway has announced special train services. The 08313 Visakhapatnam-Puri special train will depart at 00:45 hours on June 27 and July 5, reaching Puri at noon the same day. The return service (08314) will depart Puri at 2:15 am on June 28 and July 6.