Over 32,000 Ganpati idols immersed

Mumbai: The immersion (visarjan) of sarvajanik and household Ganesh idols was carried out on the sixth day of the Ganpati festival Saturday.

Several devotees also immersed idols of Goddess Gauri (Lord Ganesh’s mother) along with their Ganesh idols. Till 9 pm, 32,383 idols were immersed, of which 261 were sarvajanik Ganpatis, 28,488 household Ganpatis, and 3634 Gauris.

Of the total immersions, 16 sarvajanik, 4,129 household and 524 Gauri were carried out in artificial lakes created by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The traffic police had imposed a complete ban on heavy vehicles, including three-wheeler goods’ carriers, between 2 pm on Saturday and 2 am on Sunday. However, all essential goods’ carriers and vehicles used to ferry Ganpati idols were excluded from the ban.

On Sunday too, Mumbai will witness the visarjan of seven-day sarvajanik and household Ganpati idols. Several sarvajanik Ganesh idols (big idols) are immersed on the seventh day. The ten-day Ganesh festival ends on Thursday, September 12.

For the visarjan of Ganpati idols, Mumbai has 69 natural immersion spots and 32 artificial lakes. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has made several arrangements at all visarjan spots for the convenience of devotees.

With popular immersion spots like the Girgaum, Dadar and Juhu beaches attracting lakhs of devotees every year, the BMC has deployed over 7,824 personnel across the city.

Moreover, the civic body will be monitoring the situation through 78 control rooms. The civic body has also deployed 65 motorboats and 45 floaters in case of emergencies.