Navy roped in for vigil during immersion

Mumbai: For the first time in the history of Ganesh immersions, the Navy will keep vigil on the beaches. Though the main immersion is on September 3, visarjans will also take place on almost all the days after the installation of idols on August 23.

"BMC had tied up with the Indian Navy for the immersion to avoid accidents on the beaches during the festival. It will also keep a watch along the coastline," said additional municipal commissioner Mahadeo Sangle, adding, "Normally, it is the Coast Guard that help BMC during immersion, but for the first time, BMC is roping in the Navy for the immersion. It will keep a vigil at Girgaum Chowpatty and Powai lake." Girgaum Chowpatty last year saw over 1,00,000 Ganpati immersions on visarjan day, while Powai lake was the epicentre of central and eastern suburban immersions.

BMC has also alerted Ganesh mandals to make foolproof security arrangements and deploy "trained" volunteers for crowd management. Sangale said, "This year, mandals have to be careful and more vigilant. They have to take more security measures. Controlling the mob is more important this time." Mandals have been asked to keep an open space near the pandals, have stickers for organisers' vehicles and I-cards for all volunteers.

Meanwhile, the silence zone issue is still to be resolved. "There is no clear instruction about relaxation of silence zones. The state government has not informed us about it yet." said Sangale. Police are the implementing authority to enforce silence zones.