At the Shivaji Mitra Mandal of Tilak Road, a five-foot Ganesha idol is placed alongside a 10-foot-tall satellite. (Express)The Pune police is gearing up for the Visarjan Miravnuk, or immersion processions of Ganesh idols, as Ganeshotsav draws to a close this Thursday.
Traffic diversions, road closures and restrictions will be put in place for the occasion. An internal ring road has been earmarked for connecting diverted routes for smooth traffic flow during this period.
Along with staff from local police stations, additional staff from police headquarters, the city police commissionerate and reserved police will also be deployed. Police officials said the entire staff of the traffic control branch will be on the roads to manage traffic and the processions.
The traffic branch has released a list of roads which will be closed till the processions are over. These include Shivaji Road and Laxmi Road, which will remain closed from 7 am on Thursday, as well as Bagade Road, Guru Nanak Road and Tilak Road, which will remain closed from 9 am.
Ganesh Road and Kelkar Road will remain closed from 10 am, while Bajirao Road, Kumthekar Road and Shastri Road will remain closed from noon. Jangli Maharaj road, Karve Road, Fergusson College Road, Bhandarkar road, Pune-Satara Road and Prabhat Road will be closed from 4 pm.
On important roads, the points from which traffic will be diverted are Balgandharva Chowk on Jangli Maharaj Road, Good Luck Chowk on Fergusson College Road, Gadgil statue on Shivaji Road, Volga Square on Satara Road, Savarkar statue on Bajirao Road and Nal Stop on Karve Road. Additional parking spaces have been created at HV Desai College in Shaniwar Peth, Pulachi Wadi on the river bank, Daruwala Bridge to Khadiche Maidan on Ganesh Road, Congress Bhavan on PMC Road and Hamalwada Parking in Narayan Peth.
The ring road for connecting diverted routes will be formed by connecting patches of Karve Road, Senapati Bapat Road, Ganeshkhind Road, Ambedkar Road, Nehru Road, Shivneri Road, Satara Road, Sinhagad Road and Shastri Road.
The Home Guard, along with citizen volunteers, will be part of the overall security arrangements for the city. They will be deployed from Thursday morning till the time the processions get over on Friday morning.
The deployment will be headed by Police Commissioner K Venkatesham and Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Shisve and will be coordinated by four additional commissioners, 12 deputy commissioners and over 29 assistant commissioners. It will also be overseen by 150 inspectors, 460 assistant and sub-inspectors and 7,450 police personnel.
Quick Response Teams and Riot Control Vehicles will be on standby and Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad teams will be deployed at key positions.
The city has 1,752 registered Ganesh mandals.
