Switch off power, Ganeshotsav marquees advised

Mumbai, Aug 29 (IANS) As a precautionary move, all major Ganeshotsav 'mandals' (associations) in and around Mumbai were on Tuesday urged to switch off all electrical devices and power supply in their marquees to avoid electrical short-circuits or a potential disaster.

Making the appeal, Naresh Dahibhavkar, President of BrihanMumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti (BSGSS), said the care was being taken in view of the torrential rains lashing Mumbai since Ganesh Chaturthi (August 25).

"Since many of the large public marquees draw high-voltage power, we have requested them to switch if off till the rainfall situation normalises, so as to prevent any kind of disaster," Dahibhavkar told media persons.

Several public marquees in Mumbai city and suburbs, adjoining districts of Thane, Raigad and Palghar are experiencing waterlogging or flooding, inconveniencing devotees queueing up for a darshan of the elephant-headed god, Lord Ganesha, on Tuesday.

In view of the grim situation, he said the mandals have also been asked to deploy their volunteers trained in disaster management and other emergency duties in the vicinity of their marquees to tackle any untoward situation.

Several Ganeshotsav organisers, including the GSB Seva Mandal in Wadala, have made arrangements to provide shelter and food to lakhs of commuters who have been stranded in different parts of Mumbai since the torrential downpour started early on Tuesday morning.

Besides, several groups of individuals and volunteers, some restaurants, housing colonies and others have made arrangements to provide tea, coffee, drinking water and snacks to the stranded commuters, with many trying to walk down to their destinations as suburban trains and bus services have been virtually paralysed since afternoon.

The situation is worrying for many organisations who planned to perform the traditional fifth-day immersion ceremonies on Tuesday. The plans had been hampered due to non-stop rains, said Chandivali residence P.S. Menon.

This year, Mumbai has 11,550 big-ticket Ganeshotsav associations, 190,000 medium or small organisations and over half-a-million individual households celebrating the festival.

Among these, three are around 300 public marquees with gigantic idols of Lord Ganesha standing six metres tall in the city and suburbs.

Some of the biggest idols include the famed Lalbaug-cha Raja, Ganesh Gully, Borivali's Kastur Park, Sewri-cha Raja, Andheri-cha Raja, Fort-cha Raja, and Khetwadi, Bandra and Shivaji Park idols, among others.