BHUBANESWAR: A few spells of rain on Saturday washed away tall claims of Rath Yatra preparedness by various government agencies at Puri where lakhs of visitors will throng from across the world to witness the annual car festival on Sunday. Hospital square on Grand Road, where the three chariots will be pulled, turned into a small lake due to severe waterlogging. Though state government spent crores to improve the drainage and storm water disposal system during Nabalakebara in 2015, an hour-long downpour exposed the poor execution and planning to overcome the perennial problem of the pilgrim town. Devotees waded through knee deep water overflowing with drain water, which caused immense inconvenience to visitors. Puri recorded 53 mm rainfall from between 8.30 am to 5.30 pm on Saturday."Lakhs of devotees will throng the holy town to pull the chariots on Rath Yatra. If the condition is so horrible today with much less people then it will be unmanageable and horrible on the big day on Sunday. There seemed to be zero preparedness in the part of administration," alleged Ratnakar Padhi, a devotee. Rain threat looms large over the smooth conduct of world famous Rath Yatra- the annual car festivals the Met office predicted one or two spells of heavy rain to lash the coastal town Puri on Sunday."Weather will be generally cloudy with one or two spells of heavy rain in most of the coastal and southern districts of Odisha including at Puri on Sunday. A cyclonic circulation formed over North West bay will intensify into a low pressure in the next 24 hours and cause moderate to heavy rain across Odisha," said director of IMD's Bhubaneswar centre Sarat Chandra Sahu. The heavy rain prediction has spread panic among thousands of devotees thronged the pilgrim city to take part in the grand Rath Yatra festival. The temple administration, however said, everything is under control. "There is nothing to panic. Rath Yatra will not stop due to rain.Earlier there are instances of smooth conduct of pulling of chariots despite very heavy rain. Everything is under control and we are taking all steps to ensure timely execution of rituals," said temple administrator P K Jena. On Saturday there was a delay of three to four hours in execution of various rituals in the Jagannath temple, sources said. For Nabakalebara, the state government reportedly sanctioned more than Rs 10 crore to improve the drainage system on Grand Road in 2015. Of the proposed construction of a six km stretch drain along the road, work of left out two km stretch completed a few days before. Besides, linking of drains with the main drain was also not completed causing choking and overflow of drain water."Earlier after a spell of rain the water was accumulating at the Hospital Square for hours causing waterlogging but now it is taking 20 to 25 minutes to drain out. This is the minimum time required to clear the waterlogging. The newly constructed drain from Hospital Square to Musa River will solve the waterlogging problem but some work is yet to be done, which we will do after the Rath yatra festival," said executive engineer of drainage division, Puri, P K Behera.

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