Ahmedabad bids goodbye to Lord Ganesha

The 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival came to an end in the city on Wednesday. Thousands of devotees lined up the route of Ganesh visarjan processions for bidding adieu to Lord Ganesha.

Hundreds of idols were immersed in different parts of the city. Road traffic was disrupted in many parts of the city due to immersion processions.

The visarjan activity began around noon, with some families bringing their small idols at the immersion venues. But after 4 pm, the atmosphere became more colourful and surcharged. The roads became crowded and noisier as more and more Ganesha idols were take out for immersions. People raised slogans in praise of the Lord, and happily threw colour on each other.

AMC had fixed six spots for visarjan - Keshavnagar, Gujri Bazaar near Lokmanya Tilak Baug, Flower market near Jamalpur, Hansol at Indira bridge, Subhash bridge and Karnavati Hospital near Vivekananda bridge.  The roads near the mentioned areas became crowded in evening and traffic cops had a tough time managing the traffic.

However, devotees kept on enjoying themselves and sung prayers for the Lord. "I enjoy each and every moment of visarjan. It's been more than 20 years since we started celebrating this festival by bringing Ganpati at our home," said Gyaneshwar Mahajan, a devotee, present at the Sabarmati for immersion.

In order to witness immersion, many people were seen thronging the Ellisbridge, where several cranes were used to send the lord down the river.

According to data from the fire department, as many as 64 firemen were deployed at different locations to deal with emergencies.

"Seven ambulances with swimming equipment, two inflated boats and two boats were deployed at different locations where immersions took place," said Pravin Parmar, deputy chief fire officer.