The trial run of the newly constructed cars of the Dharbaranyeswarar Temple at Thirunallar in Karaikal will be conducted on April 3.
The brahmotsavam of the temple will be organised in April. In the past, the car festival of the temple had been conducted with the pulling of five cars including Swamy, Ammal, Vinayagar, Subramaniar, and Sandikeswarar by the devotees.
But over the past few years, the temple administration had been conducting the car festival with two cars as the remaining three cars were damaged. The devotees could see only the mandapams without cars. Hence the temple administration decided to build three new cars at a cost of Rs. 80 lakh and the BHEL had offered to fund the initiative.
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The work had been completed and the trial run would be conducted on Friday.
The Executive Officer of the temple, S.K. Pannerselvam, told The Hindu that the Chief Minister, N. Rangasamy, was likely to participate in the trial run as after around 100 years the three cars of the temple would be pulled by the devotees on the four car streets of Thirunallar.
As hundreds of the devotees would be expected to participate in the trial run, the district administration had made elaborate arrangements, including the basic amenities, annadhanam, and bus facilities to them.
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The festival would begin by the end of the April and the date of the car festival would be announced later (between May 25 and 27), said Mr. Panneerselvam.
Trial run of the temple cars to be held on April 3
BHEL had offered to fund construction of new cars