Gaya, Dec. 27: The countdown to the 11-day Kalchakra Puja has entered the final phase. With barely four days left for the festival to begin in Bodhgaya, preparations are afoot to make it a huge success.

Tibetan spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, will lead the 32nd Kalchakra Puja on Kalchakra ground, north-west of the world heritage Mahabodhi Mahavihara.

According to sources, the Dalai Lama will reach Bodhgaya on December 30. He will put up at hotel Mahayana till January 11. The office of Kalchakra Initiation Organisation Committee has been functioning from the hotel since November 2.

More than two lakh devotees from Tibet, other Buddhist countries, Europe, the US, South Asia and the north-eastern states of India are expected to participate in the puja that would continue till January 10, 2012.

The organisation committee has set up at least 10 counters for registration of the devotees participating in the puja since December 22. The registrations would continue till December 30. On an average, 10,000 registrations are being made at the counters daily.

The committee joint secretary, Thupten Jampa, said the pandals on the Kalchakra ground have been completed. The Dalai Lama would deliver a discourse from the stage that would be guarded by a bullet-proof glass on the eastern end of the ground. Security has been tightened for the Dalai Lama’s visit, Jampa said.

Magadh division commissioner Vivek Kumar today reviewed the preparations for the puja at a meeting held in the office of the Bodhgaya Temple Management Comm-ittee. Magadh range deputy inspector-general of police Nayyar Hasnain Khan, district magistrate Bandana Preyashi, senior superintendent of police Vinay Kumar, superintendent of police Satyaveer Singh and heads of various government departments attended the meeting.