<< Back to Elections 2024

Mumbai's green ways leave BMC red-faced

Updated on: 28 August,2009 06:56 AM IST |
Somita Pal |

Civic body reduced artificial lakes from 25 to 17, but demand for eco-friendly visarjans shot up this year

Civic body reduced artificial lakes from 25 to 17, but demand for eco-friendly visarjans shot up this year

Gone are the days when all roads led to the seafront during Ganesh visarjan. Now, environment-conscious Mumbaikars prefer to immerse their idols in artificial lakes.

And the trend has even taken the BMC by surprise. The civic body had reduced the number of artificial lakes from 25 in 2008 to 17 this year because of the lukewarm response last year.

But on August 24, the first day of visarjan this year, around 3,800 idols were immersed in artificial lakes compared to 3,200 idols immersed throughout the Ganesh festival last year.

Miscalculation

"We reduced the number of artificial lakes because we expected around 5,000 immersions. But Mumbaikars have proved us wrong.
u00a0
Devotees are convinced about our campaign promoting eco-friendly immersions," said Madhav Sangle, additional municipal commissioner.

But Sudhir Naik, deputy municipal commissioner said, "Last year, we offered monetary incentives for people who immersed their idols in artificial lakes, but there was no response.
u00a0
We spend Rs 3 lakh to build an artificial lake. With only 10 immersions in a lake, it becomes very expensive."

Leading the way

In her official bungalow at Dadar, Mayor Shubha Raul has an artificial lake that is also open to the public. In fact, Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi uses this lake to immerse his Ganpati.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels