Jagannath Temple in Bengal To Be Inaugurated Next Year, Puri-like Rathayatra Will Be Performed

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced that the grand inauguration of the Lord Jagannath Dham temple in Digha will take place next year. Not only that, she also said a magnificent Rath Yatra, comparable in size to the one in Puri, will also be hosted in the state.

In an update on social media platform X, Mamata wrote, “Happy to announce that, as in Puri, we in West Bengal are also erecting a pride-inspiring temple complex for Lord Jagannath at Digha. The Lord, Balabhadra and Subhadra will be worshipped here too, Rathayatra also will be celebrated.”

“Despite some discussions otherwise, the fact is that the Rathayatra will be performed at Digha from next year only. Some works and processes are incomplete as of now, and they need to be concluded before the Lord’s wheels start moving next year onwards,” she added.

Earlier, some media reports suggested that Mamata was set to inaugurate a Jagannath temple in the coastal town of Digha in the first week of July.

The Jagannath Dham, which is being built as a replica of the Jagannath temple in Puri in Odisha, is located in the seaside resort town adjacent to New Digha railway station.

Spread across 22 acres, the temple is reportedly built for Rs 143 crore, according to the state urban development department.

The Jagannath Dham has been built by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO), with the Kolkata-based Design Studio handling the design and architecture.