Ganesh festival begins in Mumbai

Mumbai welcomed its favourite elephant-headed Lord Ganesh as the 11-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival began yesterday amid tight security.The police were on watch to safeguard the installation of gigantic, medium and small statues of Lord Ganesh in different public venues, housing complexes and individual homes.Millions of Mumbaikars remained awake through the night making last minute preparations for the popular festival.The festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm in the city, the entire coastal Konkan since last week, over 300,000 big and small statues started arriving in the city from artists’ studios in different parts of Mumbai and Raigad.Security has been tightened with the deployment of 19,000 police across Mumbai to prevent any untoward incident, officials said.Special security arrangements have been made for “Lalbaugcha Raja” (King of Lalbaug area in south central Mumbai), one of the most popular venues attracting around 10mn people, including actors and politicians.At some places the statues have been installed with thematic presentations replicating the likes of famous Dilwara temple of Rajasthan, Nepal’s Pashupatinath temple or Bikaner’s Laxmi Vilas Palace.