Ganesh festival: Nearly 25k idols immersed in Mumbai by Thursday night

Mumbai: Nearly 25,000 idols were immersed in Mumbai by 9 pm on Thursday, which is the sixth day of the Ganpati festival, civic officials said.

"Of the 24,757 idols immersed in the sea and artificial ponds, 21006 were household ones, 62 belonged to 'sarvajanik mandals' (community groups) and 3689 were of Goddess Gauri," a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said.

"Of these, 11122 household idols, 31 Sarvajanik Ganapati idols and 9564 idols of Gauri were immersed in artificial ponds. No untoward incident was reported anywhere during the immersion," he added.

Devotees immerse idols after one-and-a-half days as well as the fifth, sixth or seventh day of the festival, which commenced on September 7 and will culminate on Anant Chaturdashi on September 17.

As many as 12,000 personnel have been deployed to help citizens with the idol immersion off the beaches and 204 artificial ponds have been made across the city and suburbs.

A total of 71 control rooms have been set up to monitor the festivities apart from deployment of 761 lifeguards and 48 motor boats, officials said.