Manoranjan Biswal had brought his wheelchair bound 13-year-old son to witness the chariot pulling at Patia. He was hopeful that the blessings of the Trinity would cure his son. Like him, many believers assembled at various corners of the city to catch a glimpse of the divine Trio at rath yatras organised here.

The continuous chanting of hymns and the sound of gongs was the background music during the pahandi (carrying the idols to the chariots in a procession) ceremony at Patia car festival held at Patiagarh. Patiagarh, a suburb of Bhubaneswar, was once the fort of a princely state.

Breaking the lull of eight decades, the famous rath yatra of the city was revived in 2010. Since then, it has been four years that the two local committees — Patia Grammangal Samiti and Jagannath Mahaprabhu Trust — have been successfully conducting the rath yatra with the help of donations.

Carpenters under the guidance of chief architect Bata Krushna Maharana started building the 41-feet chariot on the auspicious occasion of Akshay Trutiya. The sole chariot carrying Lord Jagannath and Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra was decorated with appliqué and garlands.

After the pahandi, Patia king Dibyasingh Deb IV came and swept the deck of the chariot as part of the chhera panhara ceremony. The chariot began rolling at 3.30pm from Patia Jagannath temple and reached its destination Gundicha temple (at a distance of half a kilometre) after a couple of hours. About 3,000 people turned up to witness the spectacle.

“The annual festival lost patronage in the 1930s as the king became bankrupt. It fills our heart with pride that we have been able to resurrect it and have successfully conducted it for four years now,” said Banamali Jena, 93-year-old resident of Patia.

Secretary of the samiti Aditya Charan Champati said the budget of the religious event was around Rs 2 lakh. Cultural programmes such as theatre, pala, devotional songs, nightlong sermons about Jagannath culture have also been organised for the residents of Patia and its surroundings.

Similar religious fervour was also seen at another venue - Iskcon temple. Various rituals were performed in the morning and the chariots set for their destination, Mausi Maa temple near DAV school at Unit-VIII at 11. 30am. About 30 rath yatras took place across the city.