KalingaTimes Correspondent
Puri (Odisha): The much awaited annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath began in grand style here on Friday morning as lakhs of devotees waited on the Bada Danda ( Grand Road ) to have a glimpse of the deities and pull their chariots.

The number of devotees outside the Lions Gate of the Sri Jagannath temple has swelled after the commencement of the Pahandi procession of the deities. Security personnel are having a tough time in controlling the crowd.

Although the inflow of devotees has been affected due to cancellation and diversion of a number of trains due to damage of rail tracks between Balasore and Howrah , lakhs of devotees have arrived in the holy town to witness the Rath Yatra.

The Rath Yatra is being telecast live by several television channels such Doordarshan, ETV Oriya and OTV.

The festival is also being webcast by National Informatics Centre (NIC) on www.rathjatra.nic.in

This is for the second year that the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath is being webcast by NIC, making it easy for the devotees across the world to watch the Yatra through Internet.

As per schedule, the pulling of the chariots will start at 4 pm after the performance of various rituals, including the Chherapahanra (cleaning of the Rathas by the Gajapati King with a golden broom.

The administration has made massive arrangements for the smooth conduct of the festival. No untoward incident has been reported till noon. Hundreds of security personnel have been deployed in the town.

Apart from Puri, Rath Yatra is also being organised in different parts of Odisha and outside.

The places where the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath is being held in the state in a big way include, Koraput, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Jajpur and Paradip.