Bhubaneswar: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), led by RDC (Central Division) and SJTA Chief Administrator Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, has given finishing touches to the newly-renovated website of the Shree Jagannath Temple (http:// jagannath.nic.in).

There is good news for devotees across the globe, who can neither attend the festival at Puri nor watch live its telecast, that they can now watch live webcast of the festival through the portals.(http://jagannath.nic.in, http://rathjatra.nic.in ).

The National Informatics Centre (NIC), Odisha State Unit is providing the technical solution to the SJTA in web-casting the mega event. NIC Odisha chief SK Panda, who has been all along on the forefront of this initiative, is backed by a dedicated team. Led by Technical Director Dr RN Behera, the other team members Scientists KC Pattnaik and Sambit K Panda are in the final stage of preparation for the festival.

The State Government launched the live web-cast of the Rath Yatra for the first time in 2004 with the technical support from the NIC. Since 2007, the live web-cast is being organised by NIC, Odisha. The NIC captures live telecast of the event from the Doordarshan channel and uplinks it to the NIC New Delhi server. The video is web-cast through the streaming media technology and it is available to the devotees across the globe. Last year, around one lakh persons watched the live web-cast from various countries.

Dr Behera said the web-cast can be watched by browing http://www.jagannath. nic.in/, http://www.rathjatra.nic.in/, http://www.orissa.gov.in/, http://www.webcast.gov.in web sites.

This year, with the SJTA’s request, NIC, Odisha has upgraded the temple web site (http://jagannath.nic.in) with a new look and feel and enriched the contents. Online donation to Lord Jagannath is facilitated through this portal (http://www.jagannath.nic.in/). Devotees can donate online through credit and debit cards of any bank or net banking facility of the Punjab National Bank.