Bhubaneswar, July 4: The holy town of Puri is ready to welcome lakhs of devotees, who would be visiting it for the naba jauban darshan (first sight) of the Trinity, the day before the car festival, scheduled on Wednesday.

In order to ensure a smooth naba jauban darshan of the deities, 140 platoons of police will be deployed in the town. The devotees are excited about the darshan this time as they were denied the opportunity last year. Last time, which was the year of Nabakalebar of the deities, the state administration did not allow the ritual as it was not confident whether authorities would be able to manage the crowd inside the temple complex.

The police today conducted a mock drill to prepare for any eventuality during rath jatra. The temple's public relations officer Laxmidhar Pujapanda said: "We will resume the practice this year. The devotees can have a darshan of the deities by purchasing the ticket from 6.30am to 7.30am. The darshan will be free between 8am and 9.30am."

The tickets will cost Rs 50. This is called parimanik darshan for which devotees will enter the temple through the southern gate. For general darshan, the devotees will go through the Singha Dwara.

The naba jauban darshan takes place when the deities recover from their 14-day sickness. This marks the build up to the car festival. The deities are taken sick after being bathed with 108 pots of water on the Deba Snana Purnima. They remain confined to the sanctum sanctorum and devotees are denied darshan during this time. After being treated by the sevayats (servitors) for 14 days, the deities become fit and recover enough to give darshan to the devotees.

Keeping the huge flow of traffic to Puri, the state traffic police has requested the National Highways Authority of India to repair the damaged portion of the Samajapur-railway overbridge by tomorrow and allow plying of light commercial vehicles. The overbridge has been declared unsafe by the authority. Earlier, the highways body had assured the administration of completing the repairs before the car festival.

Lakhs of people are expected to reach the town tomorrow. Most hotels and lodges in the city are fully booked.

Sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik has created 100 raths on the beach to mark the car festival. Another sand artist, Manas Sahu, has also created a sand animation.

A minor scuffle broke out among the servitors inside the temple complex during the time of performing a gupta neeti (sacred ritual) of the Lord. A complaint has already been registered with the daitapati niyog office. Efforts have been made for rapprochement among all the servitors.