The Mumbai police like every year have undertaken all out operations to crack down on anti-social elements, combing operations in hotels and guest houses and putting up nakabandis to check the vehicles carrying suspicious materials. (File)After a gap of two years, a heavy police bandobast will be deployed across Mumbai Friday when lakhs of people will throng the streets to see and join the immersion processions of the deity’s idols, which mark the end of the ten-day Ganesh festival.
The idols of Lord Ganesh will be taken to the sea for immersion.
The Ganpati Visarjan processions was not allowed in the last two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even though the entire Mumbai police force gets involved in the bandobast, a dedicated force of about 3,200 police officers, 15,500 police constables, eight companies of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), one Rapid Action Force (RAF), one Force-One company, 750 home guards and 250 trainees will be on ground to ensure the processions across the city go smoothly.
Besides the major Visarjan points like Girgaon Chowpatty, Shivaji Park, Juhu and Malad, the police said there are 73 natural lakes and 162 artificial ponds made by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) where the immersion of household Ganesh idols will take place.
“Till now, 2.70 lakh Ganesh idols have been immersed and the number of Ganesh idols, including gigantic idols, is the highest on the last day (Friday),” said a BMC official.
The Mumbai police like every year have undertaken all out operations to crack down on anti-social elements, combing operations in hotels and guest houses and putting up nakabandis to check the vehicles carrying suspicious materials.
“All out operations, combing operations and nakabandis are being done regularly and are being done more frequently due to the Ganesh Utsav,” said DCP (Operations) Sanjay Latkar.
The police will also make use of drones to monitor and maintain the crowd. They will be making use of megaphones and loudspeakers to guide the crowd and to provide update on the missing people, especially children.
The traffic police have placed barricades on the roads to segregate the crowd from the vehicles to prevent any untoward incident. They have also set up five traffic police control rooms at important immersion places — Girgaon Chowpatty (beach), Shivaji Park Chowpatty, Juhu Chowpatty, Malad Malwani T Junction and Ganesh Ghat, Powai.
Volunteers of Sarvajanik Ganeshutsav Mandal, Vashi, tow a Ganpati idol Vashi Creek Bridge, ahead of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. (Express photo by Narendra Vaskar) Further, watch towers are being erected by the traffic police at strategic places to ensure the smooth flow of traffic. They have also kept police cranes, BMC cranes and high-capacity cranes to remove the vehicles in case they break down creating a jam.
Traffic update:
The traffic restrictions will be in place from 12 pm Friday till 6 am the next day. There will be parking restrictions at 114 places, goods vehicles will be banned on 57 roads, 74 roads will be shut, 54 roads will have one way traffic movement and another 74 roads will be shut for vehicular traffic.
Apart from traffic restrictions, the traffic police have also cautioned the Ganpati mandals and devotees, who will be part of the arrival and immersion procession of Ganesh idols, about a list of bridges which have become old and dangerous.
“All Ganesh devotees and mandals are informed that the bridges on the railways have become old and dangerous. Therefore, all devotees should take care,” said a statement issued by the traffic police.
These bridges are Curry Road (overbridge), Arthur Road (overbridge) and Chinchpokli (rail overbridge) where the weight should not be more than 16 tons at a time.
The loudspeakers should not be used on the bridge and celebrations must be done only after coming down the bridge and the procession must not stop on the bridge for a long time.
The other rail overbridges mentioned on the list are Ghatkopar bridge, Byculla bridge, Marine lines bridge, Sandhurst road bridge, French bridge, Kennedy bridge, Falkland bridge, Belasis bridge, Mahalaxmi bridge, Prabhadevi bridge and Dadar Tilak bridge.