Bhubaneswar: Puri and the Sun Temple at Konark were waterlogged on Saturday following heavy rain triggered by a well-marked low pressure in the Bay of Bengal.

Ahead of the bahuda yatra of Lord Jagannath on Sunday, Puri recorded the highest rainfall of 322mm in the past 24 hours. All the lanes, by-lanes and even the Grand Road were under water. Despite heavy rain, devotees thronged the Gundicha temple to witness the " sandhya darshan".

Jagannath temple chief administrator P.K. Mohapatra said: "For the bahuda yatra, the special rituals have begun, and darshan of the Lord has stopped in the late evening."

The parking areas of the three chariots were waterlogged.

Puri district administration officials, including Puri collector Arvind Agrawal, camped near the Gundicha temple to ensure that the area near the chariots remained dry. Pumps were engaged to clear the water from the area. However, as the Met department has predicted heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours, the administration is worried on how to control the huge crowd that is expected to throng the town on Sunday.

"Crores of rupees had been spent on the drainage during the Nabakalebar of Lord Jagananth in 2015, but the entire system collapsed on Sunday," said Jagannath Sena chief Priyadarshan Patnaik.

On the other hand, tourists had a tough time on the Sun Temple premises because of heavy rain.

On July 16, chief minister Naveen Patnaik raised the issue of waterlogging at Sun Temple with the Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma, stating that this temple complex was facing the problem, which affected the temple very much causing inconvenience to the visiting tourists.

Rainwater also entered the Alarnath shrine in Puri and rituals had to be stopped for six hours.