Devotees from all walks of life thronged to immersion points with great enthusiasm as they arrived to seek one last glimpse of Lord Ganesha before the visarjan

The festival, which began on September 19, concluded yesterday, on  `Anant Chaturdashi` with the immersion of idols in the Arabian Sea and other water bodies across Mumbai

Mumbai’s streets have been covered in a pink shade from the ‘gulal’ (vermillion powder) that was generously thrown around as Ganesh mandals took out visarjan processions

Confetti, coloured smoke bombs with flower petal showers seemed like a norm in this year’s procession

While the public bid adieu to Lalbaugcha Raja after a heartening procession that lasted 221 hours, most Ganesha idols were immersed in the sea on Thursday evening itself

Children and adults alike were seated in the windows of their homes overlooking the processions that passed by their ‘gullys’ (alleyways).

While many joined the huge crowd of devotees and danced their hearts out to the tunes of dhol and tasha

Many big idols’ were surrounded by sea of devotees and the view from afar looked spectacular.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, a staggering 35,000+ idols were immersed with nearly 6,000 being those of ‘sarvajanik’ (public) mandals

Amid the chaos, personnel from Mumbai Police looked out for the devotees well being and to ensure law and order is maintained

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, a staggering 35,000+ idols were immersed with nearly 6,000 being those of ‘sarvajanik’ (public) mandals

This grandeur scale of Ganeshotsav was witnessed all over again after a couple of dull years due to the pandemic 

Mumbaikars were basking in all the divinity that was in the air as the huge processions made their way to immersion sites

Devotees looked at his ‘Bappa’ with admiration as the procession made its way out from bylanes of Khetwadi

The processions began with chants of ‘Ganapati Bappa Moraya, pudhcya varshi lavkar ya’ (Hail Lord Ganesha, come back sooner)

Such is the charm that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis joined the devotees and showered flowers on processions at Girgaon

A large number of people were seen waiting on roads, the immersion site for the final `darshan` of the famous idols like Lalbaugcha Raja

Some elders even carried their children on their shoulders so they could witness Bappa’s visarjan

Many devotees patiently waited for one last glimpse even as it rained on

Crowds also assembled on main road leading to South Mumbai’s Girgaon which sees maximum number of procession pass

Mumbai Police had deployed 8 Additional Commissioners, 25 Deputy Commissioners, along with 45 units, constituting 2866 police officers and 16250 police enforcers to maintain vigil

The security forces were stationed at 73 major immersion sites across Mumbai, including prominent locations such as Girgaon, Dadar, Juhu, Marve, and Aksa beach areas, in addition to 162 artificial lakes