Contrary to projections that the Ganesh immersion procession would be over in 12 hours it took more than double the time for the event to wind up in spite of a smaller crowd and fewer mandals taking part.
The event stretched to 25 hours, from Thursday morning to Friday morning, marginally less than 29 hours last year, when there were 700 more Ganesh mandals and the crowd was much bigger. The 12-hour deadline had been decided earlier because of the swine flu scare.
The delay was mainly because of the long gaps between successive mandals reaching the point of immersion. Heavy showers were also partly responsible.
Last year, 3,018 Ganesh mandals had taken part, according to the police commissionerate. The number was 2,307 this year. Out of the 3,043 registered mandals, 736 had immersed the idols on the ninth day and hence fewer mandals remained for the last day of the festival, police said.
The procession started at 10.30 am Thursday with Manache Ganapati of Kasba Ganapati Mandal entering the Laxmi Road procession route. The last mandal completed its procession at 11.45 am on Friday. The Jai Maharashtra Tarun Mandal was the last to reach the immersion point via Tilak Road.
District collector Chandrakant Dalvi, who had appealed to all mandals to wrap up the procession in 12 hours in view of swine flu, said the administration, though it could not enforce the deadline; was successful in minimising crowds for the major part of the day. “It was only during night that the procession saw some crowd,” Dalvi said. Earlier, police commissioner Satyapal Singh had appealed to mandals to wind up the processions in 20 hours.
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