The JRD Tata Sports Complex, where the youth meet will be held from January 12. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur, Dec. 24: Participants and guests, who will be in the city for the five-day national youth festival, will not be greeted with the customary namaste when they arrive on January 11. The hosts will greet them with the traditional johar—the ethnic equivalent of namaste.

The festival, beginning from January 12, would witness a gathering of over 3,500 people from different parts of the country and from Saarc nations as well.

Several Central and state ministers and other officials are expected to attend the occasion.

Johar is the tribal way of greeting visitors and friends.

“We have decided to do away with namaste and welcome our guests with johar as it symbolises the tribal culture that we want to highlight during the event,” highly-placed sources in the festival reception committee told The Telegraph.

The reception committee has also planned to put up banners at strategic points in the city, including the railway station and Sonari airport to welcome visitors.

Volunteers and officials will be present round the clock from 6:00 am starting January 11 at Tatanagar railway station to welcome participants and guests. From there, visitors will be taken to Mohan Ahuja Stadium, where the participants will have to register themselves.

Each team will be provided with services of a volunteer till the completion of the meet. Every volunteer is supposed to function as a local guide to the team assigned to him or her and the volunteer has to ensure that everything is in place for the team members.

Volunteers and officials will be present at the Ranchi airport to escort visitors to the steel city.

“Once we get to know the number of participants and guests, we shall be giving concrete shape to our plans,” additional deputy magistrate (law and order) and district Meso officer A.B. Pati said.