Bhubaneswar: Fire brigade personnel, members of Snake Helpline and two platoons of policemen will be on their toes outside when a team of inspectors wearing gamuchha (loincloth towel) and armed with searchlights steps into the ratna bhandar of the Jagannath temple in Puri on Wednesday to make a structural assessment of the treasury following orders of Orissa High Court.

When the doors of the ratna bhandar will be opened after34 years, all entrances to the temple will be shut to visitors. Devotees will not be allowed inside the temple for at least four hours from 1pm on Wednesday when an expert team would inspect the treasury. The team would enter the treasury around 2pm after ritual cleaning of the temple.

Temple public relations officer Laxmidhar Pujapanda said: "The temple will be closed till the inspection is complete. The scrutiny of the vault may take two to four hours. The inspection team would comprise five servitors of the temple, five members of the Archaeological Survey of India, temple chief administrator, administrator (rituals), representative of Orissa High Court, Puri district collector and the police chief."

To provide security to the team, two platoons of police will be deployed around the temple. However, they will not be allowed to enter the shrine. The temple police will assist the officials in ensuring that the inspection passes off smoothly. All the team members will be frisked before entering the treasury.

The frisking process will be video-graphed. Members of the Snake Helpline, fire brigade and other officials will be deployed outside the ratna bhandar to meet any emergency. "In case anything goes wrong, members of the Snake Helpline will enter the treasury," said a senior official. The administration fears that the team might encounter snakes and big lizards as the ratna bhandar has been lying closed for over three decades.

Before they enter the treasury, two members of the team will swear by Lord Loknath, a form of Shiv and considered to be the chief guard of the ratna bhandar, that they will not reveal anything about what they see to anyone, said a source.

Even the gamuchha that the team members will wear will be provided by the temple administration. Sources said the temple authorities would also ask the members to swear that they would only inspect the walls, roofs and ceilings of the ratna bhandar and not touch anything.

Earlier, the temple administration had announced that they would not prepare an inventory of the jewellery inside the ratna bhandar. Precious gold jewellery, gems, pearls and rare diamonds, apart from silver and other decorative items of the three presiding temple deities (Lord Jagannath, Goddess Subhadra and Lord Balabhadra), are stored in the ratna bhandar.

The last time the treasury was inspected was in 1984. The administrators had then opened only three rooms of the treasury. The ornaments that the Trinity are decorated with during rath yatra are taken from the bahar bhandar or the outer treasury. A section of servitors on Wednesday demanded that scion of the erstwhile Puri royal family Dibya Singha Dev should go inside the ratna bhandar.

"He is the first servitor of Lord Jagannath. As he has the knowledge of the ratna bhandar, he should go inside instead of his representative," said Kashinath Khuntia.