3 min readSep 3, 2025 09:24 PM IST
First published on: Sep 3, 2025 at 09:24 PM IST
To facilitate a smooth experience for devotees, a queue-based darshan system will soon be introduced at Puri Jagannath Temple.
The devotees usually enter the shrine through barricades erected by the administration but struggle for smooth darshan at the Natamandap – the dance hall opposite the sanctum sanctorum – due to overcrowding and lack of an organised system.
The temple managing committee on Wednesday discussed the ‘dhadi’ (queue) darshan system inside the Natamandap and approved the proposal in this regard, said temple chief administrator Arabinda Padhee.
“A committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Puri collector that will discuss with various servitors’ groups about the queue darshan system, its viability and other aspects. The committee will ensure that rituals of deities shouldn’t be hampered because of the queue darshan system. So, we have decided to introduce it on an experimental basis before its full-scale introduction,” Padhee told reporters after the temple managing committee meeting.
The newly formed temple managing committee – set up by the BJP state government which came to power in June 2024 – has approved a proposal in this regard.
A standard operating procedure will soon be issued for the introduction of the ‘dhadi’ darshan system. A six-lane ramp will be erected within the Natamandap with special arrangements for old-age persons, women, differently-abled and VIPs, said officials.
For the convenience of devotees inside the Natamandap, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), custodian of the temple, has allowed the administration to install air-conditioning systems.
The Jagannath Temple, one among the four dhaams as per Hinduism, draws massive crowds from across the country.
The managing committee also raised objections to the newly constructed Jagannath temple in West Bengal’s Digha being named ‘Jagannath Dham’. Padhee said the committee has discussed ways to deal with the issue at the state government level.
Issues related to unseasonal Rath Yatra conducted by ISKCON in different places was also discussed and Puri’s erstwhile royal and chairman of temple committee Dibyasingha Deb is expected to issue a statement on this.
Several sub-committees have been formed to deal with various issues related to the shrine, but it’s the first time that a sub-committee has been formed to look into its safety and security measures. Former CAG Girish Chandra Murmu, also a member of the newly formed committee, will head the sub-committee.
In October 2018, queue darshan was introduced on a trial basis after suggestions from the Supreme Court, but that triggered violence as a Puri-based outfit called for the scrapping of the system. The agitators had gone on a rampage by uprooting the barricades.
The Jagannath Temple, one among the four dhaams as per Hinduism, draws massive crowds from across the country. (file photo) 
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