File picture of rath yatra in Puri

Bhubaneswar, June 16: The Orissa Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) today announced a special rath yatra package which promised quality time in Puri and exciting trips to Chilika and Konark.

The corporation has packages ready for both high-end and budget tourists. The packages include stay in hotels or Panthanivas and visits to the Sun Temple and the Archaeological Survey of India Museum at Konark apart from a view of the Chandrabhaga beach and the holy rath yatra from the rooftop on the Grand Road. All this on June 2 is to be followed the next day with a visit to Satapada, famous for sighting the Irrawady dolphins and a cruise on the Chilika, the largest brackish water lake of the sub-continent. Moreover, there will be a visit to sea-mouth and the Rajhans island.

OTDC chairman Jyotishkar Mohapatra said: “The package will not only provide the visitors an opportunity to explore their roots and links with Lord Jagannath, but also offer a scope to those children, brought up in western ambience, an insight into their own culture and traditions during the car festival. We are getting good response from people from all corners of the world and the bookings will be open on the internet till June 20.”

Hinting at another package only for the rath yatra day on July 3, Mohapatra said the special air-conditioned buses would move from Panthanivas in Bhubaneswar with visitors from the twin cities, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Berhampur. While the visitors from Cuttack will start from the local Panthanivas on June 3, tourists from Sambalpur, Rourkela and Berhampur will start on the night of July 2 and stay at Panthanivas in Bhubaneswar after their arrival. With all the 120 tourists, the coaches from the OTDC main office will leave for Puri. OTDC general manager M.R. Patnaik said: “We have to restrict the number of tourists to 120 as the seats available to view car festival is very limited in the holy city. The available seats are atop the Grand Central Hotel with adequate facilities such as, morning snacks, lunch, afternoon snacks, drinking water and toilets. We do not want to take risk in increasing the number of visitors, as most of the buildings along the Grand Road are declared unsafe by the state government. We cannot take visitors to those places.”

Patnaik said: “From next year, the corporation will try to have nearly 300 seats on rooftop so that more visitors for rath yatra and package tours could be accommodated in the plan. As we do not want to compromise on the safety aspects, we cannot chose any rooftop for this grand occasion.”

“For both the day-long tour for rath yatra and the package tour, the corporation is taking utmost care to have sufficient guides, so that there would be no mishap during any of the programme. While the rath yatra tour (for one day) from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar is priced at Rs 2,555 a person and Rs 2,005 for kids below 10 years, for Sambalpur it is Rs 4,770 and Rs 4,220, respectively. Similarly, from Rourkela, it is Rs 4,810 and from Berhampur, it is Rs 4,640 and Rs 3,045, respectively,” said OTDC marketing manager Alok Mishra.

“Similarly, for package tours, while high-end travellers have to pay Rs 24,640 for single occupancy, Rs 14,805 for double occupancy and Rs 12,255 for triple occupancy, for budget travellers, single occupancy will be for Rs 14,975, Rs 9,335 for double and Rs 7,495 for triple occupancy,” he said.

From next year, the corporation is planning to have exclusive package tours for visitors to know the rituals of the trinity in which the travellers, apart from seeing the car festival could also have a guided experience to know various temple traditions and pujas of the lords.