Pune: The Datar family in Shivajinagar concluded Ganeshotsav on Tuesday afternoon by chanting ‘Ganapati Bappa Morya’ before immersing the idol installed at home in a makeshift tank.Many other families from across the city bid farewell to Ganesha idols to wind up their tradition of a one-and-a-half-day festival. Some preferred to immerse their idols in large buckets at home and in societies, while a significant number walked to the immersion ghats.Vishal Ghate, along with five family members, went to the ghat near Garware College on Tuesday evening and performed aarti, after which they immersed the idol. Ghate said his family has celebrated Ganeshotsav for one-and-a-half days for years. “We installed the idol on Monday morning. Two days were hectic; many relatives and friends visited our home for darshan and aarti,” Ghate said.Civic officials said that elaborate arrangements were in place in the jurisdictions of all 15 civic wards on Tuesday and some 2,400 idols were immersed at various locations. People preferred the makeshift tanks. Around 570 idols were donated and around 3,200 kg of nirmalya was collected at the centres set up at the immersion ghats, officials said.Officials added that arrangements, including lights and safety ropes, at the immersion ghats and locations near the banks of Mula and Mutha rivers will continue till the last day of the festival.The next round of immersions will be on the fifth, seventh and the last days. The state irrigation department has appealed to people to avoid immersing idols and throwing nirmalya in the irrigation canals that flow through the city.Devotees began arriving at Wakad ghat early on Tuesday for the immersion of their Ganesha idols before going to work. Since immersion in the Mula river is closed, devotees performed a symbolic one in the tank near the river and later handed over their idols at designated collection points. The collected idols will be transported to quarries.“I wanted to complete the immersion before going to work,” Aarti Goel, an IT professional working in Hinjewadi, said.(With inputs from Ashish Gupta)
