The road on which the rath yatra will weave its way is being widened by the administration, streetlights are being repaired, garbage is being cleared, and the city of about three lakh people is getting a fresh look.

"The city has about 500 sodium vapour lamps and nearly 150 of them are not working. We need to repair them all before the festival starts," electrician Kailash Chandra Sethi told rediff.com while working on one near the Jagannath temple.

Photographs: Lingaraj Panda
Also see: Worshipping Lord Shiva