89-foot Ganesh idol in Vizag poses danger; police order quick immersion

HYDERABAD: The 89-foot Ganesh idol installed at the Lanka grounds in Old Gajuwaka should be immersed as soon as possible, according to a warning issued by Visakhapatnam police on Saturday to the Ganesh Utsav committee. The vizag police claim that it might collapse if the 89-foot-tall Ganesh statue was not immersed as soon as possible.

The Vizag police officials said that the idol tilted to its left by one foot and believe that the cracks on the trunk and belly of the 89-foot-tall statue were caused by the heavy rains. The Ganesh Idol was personally inspected on Friday by the Executive Engineer and Deputy Executive Engineer of the R&B Department, Visakhapatnam. They noticed a defect on the back side of the idol's structure. They found out that it was caused due to lesser length of the overlaps for the scaffolding poles and casurina ballies which support the structure of the the idol. The R&B representatives also prescribed necessary precautions during the immersion.

The Vizag police gave the organisers the go-ahead to take the required safety measures after barring the public from coming within 100 metres of the huge idol. Additionally, they suggested appropriate precautionary steps to prevent rainwater from falling on the idol during rainfall. Furthermore, they advised constructing suitable winch rope and pulley arrangements to support the scaffolding so that the load would not be temporarily transferred to the idol. In order to prevent any unfortunate situations, they added that immersion arrangements should be made in accordance with the advice of the R&B officials.

The Ganesh Utsav committee has planned to immerse the Ganesh idol on September 18, 2022. The R&B officials, however, urged them to immerse the idol as soon as possible because they were concerned about the possibility of untoward incident given the size of the idol and the large number of devotees thronging the place for a darshan.