Ahmedabad. The 148th Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath started in Ahmedabad on Friday morning, in which thousands of devotees gathered to see God. According to the centuries -old tradition, the Khalasi community took out the chariots of Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra from the Jagannath temple located in the Jamalpur area of the city.
The grand procession of three chariots started from the 400 -year -old temple and is expected to return from the old city to eight o’clock at night. The areas where this journey will go through includes some communally sensitive areas.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and his family members attended the morning worship at the Jagannath temple, while Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel performed ‘Pahind Vidhi’, which is a traditional ritual of symbolic cleaning of roads with gold broom.
The procession usually consists of 18 elephants, 100 trucks, ‘Bhan-Mandali’ (Bhakti Group) and 30 Akhara (local gymnasiums). This procession will cover a distance of 16 km today. Many trucks are decorated as tableaux on different themes. Lakhs of devotees are expected to gather on both sides of the route to see Lord Jagannath and his siblings throughout the day.
Police officials said that they have made extensive security arrangements for the procession. Around 23,800 security personnel have been deployed in the city to protect the annual rath yatra. 14-15 lakh people are expected to be involved in this rath yatra. According to the official release, a monitoring system based on artificial intelligence (AI) will be used for the first time to prevent stampede conditions.
It states that the AI -based system will inform the police and the fire department in the event of a fire on the route. Apart from this, it will also inform the police control room if it is gathered by too many people in a particular area.
Officials said about 4,500 security personnel will run with a procession on the entire 16 km route, while 1,931 personnel will be deployed for traffic management. Many roads will remain closed for normal traffic. Senior police officers will keep an eye on the chariot journey using 2,872 ‘body-worn’ cameras, 41 drones and 96 cameras installed at various locations and 25 monitoring towers.
