Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh idol stuck at sea during visarjan

Around 9pm on Sunday night, fervent chants of ‘Pudhchya varshi lavkar yaa (Come soon next year)’ rose in the air around Girgaon Chowpatty as thousands of devotees gathered to immerse the Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh idol in the sea. 

For many, it had been a very long wait to witness the visarjan — the idol is usually immersed around 9am on the day after the Anant Chaturdashi, but the visarjan was delayed by 12 hours this time.

The visarjan (immersion) of the Lalbaugcha Raja idol was delayed this year mainly because of the high tide at Girgaon



Chowpatty and a technical snag.

The procession, which began from Lalbaug on Saturday afternoon, reached Chowpatty on Sunday morning around 8am. However, by that time, the tide had already started rising.

Another reason for the delay was a technical snag with the immersion process. Traditionally, a mechanised raft is used to carry the 18-feet-tall idol into the sea. But this year, the Mandal introduced a new electrically operated raft. Volunteers struggled to transfer the idol from the trolley onto the raft because of the waist-deep water and strong currents.