A young tourist prays in front of Lord Jagannath’s rath at Gundicha temple on Thursday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Puri, July 11: Lord Balabhadra’s chariot Taladhwaja had a dry run, but siblings Lord Jagannath and Goddess Subhadra braved rain and waterlogged street to reach Gundicha today.

Nandighosha of Jagannath and Debadalana of Subhadra were forced to halt yesterday near the Mausi Maa temple and Medical Chowk, respectively, owing to bad weather and the twisted path the chariots took.

The chariots resumed their journey at 9am today as lakhs of devotees pulled the rope even as the skies opened up and Grand Road turned into a veritable pool.

With tight security arrangements, old and young devotees safely steered the two chariots to the Saradhabali by 10.30am.

The three deities will remain seated on the chariots till tomorrow afternoon when the pahandi (procession to escort the deities) to carry the trio inside the temple will be conducted after the sandhya darshan.

“A number of rituals are performed before carrying the deities inside. The three deities will be taken to the adapa mandap inside the Gundicha tomorrow after sandhya dhoopa where they will reside for the next six days,” said Kumar Bhimsen, a servitor.

Devotees were seen climbing the chariots with the help of ladders and to view the Trinity in queues arranged by the temple administration.

“It was an extremely exciting moment to go close to Lord Jagannath while the deity was on the chariot. The arrangements were good and made it convenient for us to climb the chariots and view the deities easily,” said Shankar Nath, a devotee from Uttar Pradesh.

People were upset about the district administration’s, especially the municipality’s inefficiency in managing drainage system. “The authorities had announced that they had started working on drainage issues a couple of months before the festival and yet, there was knee deep water today on Grand Road,” said Saudamini Sahoo, a local resident.

District collector Naba Nayak said that the civic disorders had been solved to the best possible extent. “Earlier, the water would be jammed for hours at a stretch. But we had worked on it. It will obviously take some for the water to clear from the roads,” he said.

Bhramara Bhoi, 45, the servitor who was injured yesterday and is being treated at SCB hospital in Cuttack, underwent an operation today. His injured leg had to be amputated. Bhoi’s treatment expenses will be borne by the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.