Amidst chants ofGanpati bappa morya, pudhchya varshi lavkar ya (Hail lord Ganesh, do come back early next year), lakhs of enthusiastic Mumbaikars joined most colourful Ganpati idol immersion processions across the metropolis on Monday, to bid an emotional goodbye to the elephant-headed God on the last day of the 10-day-long festivities.
The country’s commercial capital came alive as hundreds and thousands of people came out on the city streets to join the Ganpati immersion processions that headed to various waterfronts across the city.
The devotees and revellers accompanied huge Ganesh idols being carried in trucks and other modes of transport made their way to as many as 72 immersion sites, including 27 sea-fronts, set up by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in various parts of the city.
As the trucks and tempos carrying the idols passed through the designated routes, the people standing on the balconies and terraces of the buildings showered colour and rose petals on the idols of the elephant-headed God.
like every year, various State-Central Government, civic agencies, Ganpati Mandals and voluntary organisations including the city police, BMC, Navy and Coast Guard, had made elaborate arrangements to ensure the smooth conduct of the immersion proceedings, which was slated to go on till the small hours of Tuesday.
On a day when the metropolis reverberated to the chants of the elephant-headed God, as many as 7174 sarvajanik ganapati idols and 18,000-odd domestic Ganesh idols were immersed at 72 designated water fronts, including beaches and lakes and 27 eco-friendly artificial lakes created by the BMC.
The total number of Ganpati idols immersed on the last day, were in addition to the 1.79,184 domestic Ganpati idols and 4,826 Sarvajanik idols, which had been immersed at various waterfronts till evening of September 4. This in essence meant that during this year’s Ganesh festivities, as many as 2,10,000 Ganesh idols, both the Sarvajanik and domestic ganpati idols were in all immersed at various waterfronts in the city and its suburbs, as against 2,07,641 last year.
There was also a huge turnout of people at various other immersion sites across the city, including Dadar Chow-patty, Juhu Chowpatty, Marve beach, Madh Island, Powai lake, Madh Island, Manori Beach, Gorai beach, Mahim, Aarey lake, the Mithi River, its branches and various artificial lakes.
Not wanting to take any chances, the city police and security agencies had deployedhuge posses of their personnel, including 47,000 city police personnel, 10 teams of Quick Response Teams, 12 teams of Force One, several team of State Reserve Police (SRP) and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel along the procession routes and at the various immersion sites.