The Jagannath Temple rath yatra has just concluded, and Rabi Narayan Das, 53, misses the chaos and crowds. “My house used to be filled with close relatives and friends from out of town,” he remembers. A bank employee, Mr. Das voluntarily gave up his three-storeyed 800 sq ft. home, built 40 years ago, a few feet away from the 12th century temple, for one of the largest State-sponsored temple city development projects in the country. The family of four now lives about a kilometre away, and wakes up every morning to a flyover that is coming up to enhance the ease of access for religious tourism.
Last month, the Odisha Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, approved a proposal to increase the total outlay by over ₹1,000 crore, from ₹3,208 crore (sanctioned in 2021-22) to ₹4,224.22 crore, for the Augmentation of Basic Amenities and Development of Heritage and Architecture (ABADHA) scheme, which aims at transforming Puri’s infrastructure.
The Jagannath Temple, one of the four dhams (holiest of holy sites for Hindus), occupying over 43,000 square metres, is the reason the town exists. About 70-80% of the people in the town are dependent on the temple’s economy. As Mr. Das gets used to the sound of traffic in his new home, he remembers the tinkle of bells and the clash of cymbals. “The CM had made an emotional appeal for land acquisition, so we consented to giving our house,” he says, adding that no amount of money can compensate for the emotional connect with the deity.
