For the first time in five decades, Lord Jagannath will roll out of Iskcon’s Albert Road temple not in a chariot but on a trailer truck, to be escorted by a police pilot car, because of the Covid pandemic.

To avoid the congregation of devotees along the road, the route has not been announced.

The Rath Yatra festival will also be scaled down in Nadia’s Mayapur, the global headquarters of the Iskcon. “There will be no traditional Yatra this year. The deity of Jagannath, which used to travel 6km from Rajapur village to the Gundicha temple in Mayapur, will travel within the Iskcon premises with only 50 pujaris alongside,” said a source.

The Mayapur premises will remain closed to all visitors on Monday.

In the golden jubilee year of Iskcon’s Calcutta Rathyatra, the divine siblings will travel from the temple to Iskcon House on Gurusaday Road. The traditional mela on the Maidan has been cancelled.

“We had been planning for this occasion for seven years. An order had been placed in the US for a 40ft Flying Hanuman balloon, costing Rs 1.5 crore. Devotees would have come from 150 countries to join a 3km-long procession. But the Covid pandemic put paid to all our plans,” said Radharaman Das, vice-president, Iskcon Calcutta. Last year, the idols were not even brought out of the temple.

Monday’s puja will start at 11am, followed by 556 bhog and then mid-day bhog to be sent by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who used to inaugurate the rathyatra. A mini empty rath will be pulled inside the temple as a symbolic gesture.

The deities will be placed in the trailer at 1pm for the trip to the Gurusaday Road premises, where a symbolic Gundicha temple (or aunt’s house) is being erected for their stay. “A speed of 15 to 20km per hour will be maintained by the trailer for the 4km ride,” Das said.

Darshan will be allowed in batches from 4pm to 8pm daily. “We will maintain the cap of 50, according to Covid protocol. Barely six of us and the priest will stay inside so that more devotees can get in. Darshan will take place as part of a moving queue,” Das said.

Packed prasad will be distributed. The priests in the city on Sunday spoke about Fr Stan’s “fight against injustice” and to convince tribals to believe that they should not “lose their rights”. ituals will be live streamed on Iskcon Calcuttta’s social media pages.

At Mayapur, only one chariot, instead of the customary three, will travel less than 200m from Gada Bhawan to the gate of the Panchatatva temple. “The movement of the chariot of Lord Jagannath will be restricted to the Mayapur temple premises,” said Iskcon Mayapur’s head of media communications, Subroto Dasa.

In Serampore, while the 625th edition of the Mahesh Rathyatra has been cancelled, the natmandir will be opened to the public at 4pm for darshan.