Bhubaneswar, Nov. 22: People will join hands literally from Dhauli to Nandankanan Zoo tomorrow to form a 30km long human chain to pay tribute to former chief minister Biju Patnaik. The event is part of the state government's Biju Patnaik centenary celebrations.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the event at the Biju Patnaik Park at 9am.

Tomorrow's event comes when talks are being held to finalise the date for an even bigger human chain to protest against Chhattisgarh government's construction activities on the Mahanadi river.

Though the Mahanadi protest, which will be a 450km human chain along the course of the river from Hirakud to Paradip, is going to be a BJD event, leaders in the ruling party feel that tomorrow's event will help them fine tune the mega show.

A senior BJD leader said: "The experience from this event will also help us organise the proposed human chain along the Mahanadi."

The human chain in Biju's memory will start from Dhauli and would travel past Ravi Talkies, state museum, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Mausi Maa Chhak, Forest Park, AG Square, Raj Bhavan Square, Jayadev Vihar, Kalinga Hospital, KIIT Square before reaching Nandankanan Zoo.

Official sources said that students, self-help groups, NCC and scouts volunteers would take part in the 30km human chain. According to a rough estimate, nearly 1,000 people will be required to form a 1km-long human chain. Going by that, the state government's panchayati raj department will have to rope in nearly 30,000 people to form tomorrow's human chain.

Panchayati raj minister Arun Sahu said: "The entire chain will be divided into 24 zones. A nodal officer will be deployed to see that discipline is maintained in each zone. The officials of panchayati raj department will see to it that no disturbance takes place." He said adequate drinking water arrangements would be made on the occasion and enough ambulances will be deployed to take care of emergencies.

Human chains will also be organised in the 314 blocks and district headquarters on the occasion.

However, BJP leaders criticised the government's move to form the human chain.

"Government officials are being used for BJD's political programmes. The anganwadi workers, accredited social health activists workers, helpers and other officials, who are directly under the control of state government have been asked to take part in the event. Letters have been sent to all block officials in this regard," said BJP state vice-president Samir Mohanty adding that chief minister should not spend tax-payer's money to promote his party in the name of Biju centenary."