It’s that time of the year again. While the city awaits the elephant god, the pandals are ready to roll the celebrations out after insuring the Ganesh idols. The two most famous pandals in the city -- The Goud Saraswat Brahmin Ganeshotsav (GSB) mandal at King Circle and the Lalbaugcha Raja Ganeshotsav mandal — have crossed the Rs 50 crore mark, while the others have stuck to the amounts decided on last year.u00a0The GSB Ganeshotsav mandal, which will be home to the richest idol — worth Rs 21.6 crore with 80 kg of gold apart from the jewellery --has insured its pandal for Rs 223 crore. The amount is Rs 1 crore less compared to last year but the pandal maintained that the security of the devotees and volunteers is important, and insured them for a whopping Rs 182 crore. Each devotee, volunteer and guard are insured at Rs 10 lakh per person.

The GSB Ganeshotsav mandal is insured for all the risks like fire, theft, external damage, terrorist attack, and other perils. File Pic