Overview
- Civic figures show more than 61,500 Ganesh and Hartalika idols were immersed in Mumbai by the early hours of Wednesday, September 16, with BMC updates giving totals of 61,528 and later 61,640 in successive tallies.
- The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said it set up 383 artificial immersion ponds across the city to divert idol immersion from beaches and lakes, while the Ganeshotsav Samiti put the number at just over 355, creating a noted discrepancy in facility counts.
- Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide ordered stepped-up safety and service measures that included trained lifeguards, rafts, free crane access for large idols, portable toilets, lighting, CCTV and dedicated nirmalya collection bins at immersion sites.
- Nearby civic bodies reported parallel operations and totals: Thane Muncipal Corporation prepared 132 designated immersion facilities, Kalyan-Dombivli recorded 16,666 immersions, and Panvel reported about 7,629 household immersions at 106 locations.
- Officials said no untoward incidents were reported during the one-and-a-half-day immersions and warned that immersion numbers will continue to rise through the festival, with authorities maintaining expanded facilities and pollution-control measures up to Anant Chaturdashi on September 25.