Bhubaneswar: The Durga Puja in the city came to end with the idol of the goddess being immersed in temporary two tanks near Kuakhai bridge and one each near Tankapani and Daya bridge.
While the ceremony began early near Kuakhai and Tankapani, the idols were immersed near Daya bridge at Lingipur late in the evening.
BMC Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, Twin City Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty, Bhubaneswar DCP Anup Sahoo and other senior police and BMC officials and engineers were present at the Kuakhai site for the smooth operation of the immersion ponds.
The BMC had put up adequate signage for the easy identification of routes for the various puja committees.
For the first time, the BMC engineering wing had deployed a crane for easy handling and respectable immersion of the idols.
BMC Executive Engineer (Division-I) PSN Patro said, “Earlier during the immersion, the various body parts of the idols were broken and thrown into the rivers. The crane helped the organisers to lift the heavy idols and place them inside the largest immersion pond at Kuakhai, which was nearly 8,000 square feet in size.”
The second immersion pond near Kuakhai was nearly 3,000 square feet in size. While one near Tankapani bridge along the Daya river was 4,582 square feet, that along Puri NH was 2,784 square feet.
This apart, the sanitation workers have been working to keep the areas near puja pandals tidy throughout the puja. Various organisers were also advised to use extra dustbins.
To make the people more aware during the festival season, hoardings were used with themes like public littering, restricted use of plastic/polythene, Swachha Bharat Abhijan near all puja pandals. The BMC had already started a radio jingle on cleanliness drive.
The engineering wing of BMC has ensured levelling all potholes near the pandals across the city. The nearby drains were covered with concrete slabs and street lights repaired.
