Bhubaneswar, June 18: The Shree Jagannath Temple administration has insured all the pilgrims who will be visiting Puri to witness the car festival.

Pilgrims will be treated as residents of Puri from June 24 to July 6 to bring them under the insurance cover. This year, the car festival will be celebrated on June 25.

Public relations officer of the temple Laxmidhar Pujapanda said: "The temple administration has roped in the National Insurance Company for the purpose. While, the temple premises is insured for the entire year, for the first time, we have insured the Rath Khala (chariot yard) as well. The workers have been also insured for the festival. In fact, the entire urban area will be insured during the rath yatra period."

For the insurance of the pilgrims, the temple administration has given Rs 10 lakh to the insurance company. " Besides insuring people we are also stressing on the overall development in the health sector. We are trying to ensure that the devotees get a good darshan of the lord," said Pujapanda.

Surjit Mallick, 51, a devotee from Bengal died of heart stroke today after he fell down inside the temple premises. "We immediately rushed him to the district hospital where he was declared brought dead. He died because of heart stroke," said Pujapanda.

The security has been beefed up in Puri after the chief minister took the review meeting of the state's preparedness for the rath yatra yesterday.