Ram Navami celebration was a low-key affair in the steel city on Wednesday for the second consecutive year due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

All the 170-odd akharas performed a simple puja with a low turnout of devotees.

The main flag of the Shri Mahavir Mandal Ranchi was worshiped in the Tapovan temple in the ancient Hanuman temple at Mahavir Chowk in Ranchi Manob Chowdhary

The city's biggest and oldest Jumbo Akhara in Bhalubasa kept the rituals simple, limiting the number of devotees inside the temple after a thermal screening.

The Jumbo Akhara witnessed a footfall of around 1,000 devotees.

All those who went to the Jumbo Akhara were asked to strictly follow social-distancing norms apart from the use of face masks.

The volunteers present offered hand sanitisers to the devotees before starting the puja.

Sanitisation work under progress at Jumbo Akhara in Bhalubasa during Ram Navami celebration on Wednesday. Bhola Prasad

Health department officials were also deployed at the venue for sanitising the temple complex in regular intervals so as to check the spread of the virus.

Functionaries of Jamshedpur Durga Puja Kendriya Samity (JDPKS), the apex body which ensures peaceful conduct of the festival, hailed the Akhara committee for maintaining hygiene and social distance.

"The Jumbo Akhara at Bhalubasa attracts the maximum number of devotees on Ram Navami. This year the turnout was much less due to the pandemic. The Akhara committee members did a good job for ensuring mandatory Covid protocols," said Rambabu Singh, general secretary of JDPKS.

According to the senior functionary of the apex body no immersion processions will be taken out on Thursday due to the Covid restrictions imposed by the state government.