Surat: Many devotees of Lord Ganesha in the city have decided to build small artificial ponds near their houses or pandals to immerse the idols of their favourite god on the conclusion of the 10-day festival on September 23.
The
Ganeshotsav begins on September 13 and over 73,000 Ganesha idols will be installed both in private and public places, including at 8,000 pandals, in the city. About 60,000 idols are expected to be immersed in the 19 artificial ponds to be built by Surat Municipal Corporation. Ganesh Utsav Samiti members say over 70 per cent of the idols would be made of clay.
Ganesh Utsav Samiti president Anil Biscuitwala said, “Some pandals will build 20 feet wide artificial ponds where a number of idols can be immersed with rituals.”
People are inquiring from SMC how to build artificial ponds. SA Jariwala, additional city engineer, SMC, said, “We are getting several inquires from the people about the artificial ponds. We expect large number of people to themselves build small ponds for the immersion of the idols.”
The ponds to be built by the civic body will be 60 metre wide and 2 metre deep. There would be others too with varying sizes. SMC will spend around Rs2 crore on the construction of artificial ponds where an expected 60,000 idols will be immersed. Idols only up to 5 metre in height can be immersed in these ponds. The rest would have to be immersed in the sea.
