If everything goes as per plan, the world famous Jagannath temple in Puri will soon have its own FM radio station. The decision to set up the new private radio station was taken at a managing committee of the temple meeting, held at Puri recently.

The main purpose behind setting up the FM radio station is to spread and further popularise the Jagannath cult and culture among common people, sources in the Puri temple administration said.

In the first phase, the FM radio station which will be set up at a cost of Rs 5 crore and will have programmes for eight hours daily—four hours in the morning and four in the evening—consisting of “bhajans” (devotional songs) recorded by prominent  singers both from within the state and outside.

Since long, thousands of bhajans about the Puri temple as well as the three deities of the famous shrine—Jagannath, Balabhadra and their sister Subhadra—have already been recorded by specialist bhajan singers within the state like the late Bhikari Bal. A number of leading playback singers from Bollywood have also sung bhajans in Odia about the Puri temple.

Apart from the bhajans, the FM radio station in its daily programme will also broadcast different rituals, festivals and other activities of the temple. Subsequently, sponsored programmes will also be arranged.

However, the date of the launching of the new FM radio station is yet to be decided by the Puri temple administration. The full fledged work to set up the radio station will begin after the coming Rath Yatra or the Car Festival, the annual mega religious event of the Odisha shrine scheduled to held next month.

The temple administration will have to obtain a licence from the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry to set up the new FM radio station. Apart from which, the permission of the Odisha government is needed. Though the managing committee of the Puri temple, headed by the Gajapati Maharaja of Puri, is an independent body, different administrators of the shrine including the chief administrator are being appointed by the state government. Further, the temple also receives substantial financial contribution from the state government every year.

The FM radio station apart, the Puri temple administration is also planning to launch its dedicated pages on Twitter and Facebook very shortly. The shrine already has a dedicated website.