All four gates of Jagannath temple in Puri reopen after Covid-19 pandemic
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Manjhi and ministers at the reopening ceremony of Puri's Jagannath Temple gates.
All four gates of the Jagannath Temple in Puri have reopened to devotees for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic. This move comes as part of a major announcement by Odisha’s newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Manjhi and his ministers, Puri MP Sambit Patra, and Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi visited the temple early Thursday morning to mark the occasion.
“During the elections, we said we would reopen all four gates… All four gates of the temple are going to be opened today. All members of the Council of Ministers are present here. The CM is also present… A corpus fund worth ₹500 crores has also been announced for development projects… We took the oath yesterday and are opening the gates today,” said Odisha Minister Suryabanshi Suraj.
The temple, which dates back to the 12th century, has four gates: Simhadwara (Lion Gate), Ashwadwara (Horse Gate), Vyaghradwara (Tiger Gate), and Hastidwara (Elephant Gate). These gates had been closed due to the pandemic, and only the Simhadwara was open to devotees, leading to long queues and congestion.
“The state government decided to re-open all four gates of the Puri Jagannath temple early this morning in the presence of all ministers. Devotees will have access to the temple through all four gates,” stated Chief Minister Manjhi.
In addition to reopening the temple gates, the Odisha cabinet has approved a corpus fund of ₹500 crore for the temple’s maintenance and development. The cabinet has also introduced new policies for farmers, including setting a minimum support price (MSP) for paddy at ₹3100 per quintal, to be implemented within the next 100 days. Another initiative, the Subhadra Yojana, will provide cash vouchers worth ₹50,000 to each woman in the state, to be rolled out within the same timeframe.
