Three chariots, each weighing 200 tonnes to 300 tonnes, are ready to roll on the Grand Road (Bada Danda) of Puri on Tuesday, taking the deities of Shree Jagannath temple on a 2.5 km ride to Shree Gundicha temple.

The carpenters and the artists on Monday gave the final touches to the chariots. Although a crack was noticed in one of the axles of one of the three chariots, the carpenters assured the temple administration that it was not a big one and was repaired.

As a precaution, the carpenters used an iron clamp in the axle of the wheels of the chariots to ensure that nothing went wrong. The crack was noticed on the chariot of the Goddess Subhadra, known as Darpadalan. Later all three chariots were pulled from the construction site (Rath Khala) to in front of the temple (Singha Dwara) and lined up there. “Everything will go smoothly when devotees will pull the chariots on Tuesday,” said senior servitor Rama Chandra Das Mohapatra.

The chariot of Lord Jagannath, popularly known as Nandigosh, is the heaviest among the three. The chariot of Lord Jagannath weighs around 280 tonnes to 300 tonnes. Similarly, the weight of the chariot of Lord Balabhadra (Taladwaja) is around 250 tonnes and the Darpadalan is around 200 tonnes. Nandighosh is 45.6 feet high and has 16 wheels; Taladwaja is 45 feet high and has 14 wheels; and Darpadalan is 44.6 feet high and has 12 wheels. Nearly 10,800 cubic feet of wood is used to build the three chariots. As many as 250 workers engaged in the construction of the work and with 58 days of relentless effort, they made the chariots ready for the Rath Yatra.

Chief secretary P.K. Jena, who is in Puri to oversee the preparation for the Rath Yatra, said: “We will have another round of discussion with the senior servitors for timely completion of the rituals during the Rath Yatra.”

According to the schedule, the pahandi bije of the deities would begin at 9.30am on Tuesday. In the pahandi bije, the massive idols of the deities, each around seven-foot tall with arms, would be taken out from the temple’s sanctum sanctorum by the servitors and would install on the chariots. They would step out from the shrine in a procession one by one called pahandi bije. Following the completion of rituals, the chariots would be pulled by the devotees one by one. The pulling of chariots would begin at 4pm on Tuesday. All the chariots are scheduled to reach Shree Gundicha temple in the evening if everything goes right according to the plan.

On Wednesday, the deities would be taken inside the Shree Gundicha temple. The deities would stay for seven days there and return on the same chariots on the day of Bahuda, the return journey on June 28.