Thane Mayor Sharmila Pimpolkar has directed the Thane Municipal Corporation to complete all pending work at Ganesh visarjan ghats by September 13, ahead of the city’s Ganesh festival preparations, according to a report by Loksatta – Thane.
Pimpolkar inspected immersion facilities at Datta Ghat near Masunda Lake, the artificial lake at Railandewadi and the immersion ghat at Gaimukh on Tuesday. She had earlier visited the immersion ghats at Kopri, Kolshet and Parsik on Friday, the report said.
During the inspections, the mayor reviewed ongoing works, facilities planned for devotees, security arrangements, traffic management and sanitation measures with municipal officials. She instructed the administration to prioritise the completion of artificial immersion ponds, electrical installations and closed-circuit television cameras at the sites.
The Ganesh festival is scheduled to begin on the following Monday, with the immersion of one-and-a-half-day idols expected on Tuesday. Immersions will continue on different days through Anant Chaturdashi, creating sustained demand for facilities and crowd-management measures at the city’s immersion locations.
The municipal administration has also been instructed to install barricades near municipal lakes and provide separate arrangements for devotees to perform aarti at the immersion ghats. The directions include setting up weather shelters in view of possible rain and making mobile toilets available for visitors.
Other facilities listed for urgent completion include public-address systems, information and direction boards, nirmalya collection containers, drinking water arrangements and cleaning services. The mayor directed the relevant departments to complete these works before the September 13 deadline.
Pimpolkar also asked the civic administration to make immersion tanks available in large housing complexes across Thane. The request recognises that many residential societies conduct idol immersion within their premises, in addition to the public facilities operated by the municipal corporation.
The civic preparations cover several locations with different operational requirements, including natural lakes, artificial ponds and designated immersion ghats. The municipal directions include safety, access, sanitation and crowd-management measures across these sites.
The report did not provide details of the total number of immersion locations, the budget allocated for the works, or the number of municipal personnel to be deployed. It also did not specify the traffic diversions or the operating hours planned for individual ghats. The immediate administrative milestone is completion of the identified works by September 13, before the festival begins.
