Preparations are on in full swing for divine siblings' retreat to their original abode in Puri on Thursday. The pulling of chariots will begin at 4pm and the process is expected to be over on Thursday unlike what happened on rath yatra day last Wednesday when the chariots had reached the Gundicha temple the next day.

Public relations officer of Shree Jagannath Temple, Laxmidhar Pujapanda, said: "The pahandi procession (when the deities are taken to the chariots) will begin at noon and the chhera panhara (cleaning of the chariot decks) by King Dibya Singh Deb will start at 3.30pm. Then the chariots will be pulled."

The deities will be decked up with chhenapatta lagi, the protective attire, so that the idols do not get hurt during the pahandi procession. The pahandi will begin by noon, while the chariots will be pulled at 4pm. Before the process begins, the Trinity will be woken up with the mangala alati at 4am and khichdi will be served at 6.30am inside the Gundicha Temple.

He said the temple administration was hopeful that the chariots would reach the temple tomorrow as there would be less crowd compared to the rath yatra.

With the chariots ready to roll back to the temple, thousands of devotees today queued up at the Gundicha Temple to get the sandhya darshan of the deities in the adapa mandap (the pandal inside the Gundicha temple).

The chariots have already been turned towards the direction of the Jagannath temple and all three of them have been checked and repaired for the big occasion.

"The carpenters have examined the chariots and they are ready to carry the deities back. We will still conduct a final check tomorrow morning before the bahuda yatra," said Bijay Mohapatra, the chief carpenter of Lord Jagannath's chariot, Nandighosh.

As more than three lakh people are expected to be a part of the bahuda yatra, the state government has made elaborate security arrangements. Security guards will be stationed at all points to ensure a smooth return journey of the deities, an official said.

Though the return journey of deities begins tomorrow, Lord Jagannath and the siblings will go inside the temple on July 17, the Niladri Vije day. The deities will stay on the chariots for three days from July 14 to July 17. On July 15, the deities adorned with gold ornaments will give darshan to people.