With less than a month remaining for Ganeshotsav, engineers from the roads department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been instructed to walk along and assess procession popular routes in their respective wards to ensure they have smooth surfaces, minimal potholes, and no speed breakers that will catch vehicles bearing large idols off guard.

On Monday, a day after Maharashtra Cultural Affairs Minister and Guardian Minister of Mumbai Suburbs Ashish Shelar directed the BMC to inspect all idol routes within 24 hours, a senior civic official closely associated with the management of the festival told mid-day, “The instructions were communicated with the roads department as part of the principal preparations for the 10-day festival. All routes used for ‘aagman’ [arrival] and ‘visarjan’ [immersion] are being inspected by road officials of every ward on foot.”