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Mumbai: BMC unable to meet demand for artificial ponds this year, too
Updated On: 02 September, 2024 07:08 AM IST | Mumbai | Prajakta Kasale
Devotees favour safe, eco-friendly water bodies, but land availability continues to be an issue
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An artificial pond at Hedgewar Maidan, Vile Parle East on September 20, 2023. File pic
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is trying to create more artificial ponds for the immersion of Ganesh idols, but land availability in the city is an issue. The corporation had tried to set up 300 such water bodies last year but ended up creating only 194 due to lack
of space.
The concept of artificial lakes was mooted in 2008, and the civic body used to provide one or two of them in each of the city’s 24 wards. In 2019, there were 32 artificial lakes but the number saw a five-fold increase amid the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Immersions in artificial lakes rose from less than 20 per cent to more than 50 per cent in these two years. Even after restrictions on public gatherings were revoked, the popularity of such lakes due to their safe and environment-friendly nature increased, and more than one-third of idols immersed were in man-made lakes last year. Approximately 2.06 lakh idols were immersed in natural as well as artificial lakes last year, a notable rise from the 2022 count of around 1.93 lakh idols. Out of the 2.06 lakh idols, 76,000 found their way into artificial ponds.
But despite the demand, the BMC hasn`t been able to increase the availability of such immersion spots as space is a major issue. The civic spends almost R5 lakh, including the cost of digging, to create an artificial lake.
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