Heavy rains tilt 89-ft Gajuwaka Ganesha; cracks appear on idol

Visakhapatnam: Heavy rains that lashed Vizag city has tilted the tallest Ganesha idol at Gajuwaka locality here.

It may be recalled that an 89-ft height Ganesha idol was installed at Lanka Grounds, Old Gajuwaka, in Vizag city a few days ago during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.

Due to heavy rains, the idol tilted about one foot towards the left. Some cracks were also seen on the stomach and trunk of the Ganesha.

The executive engineer and the deputy executive engineer of the R&B department inspected the idol on Friday and observed that the structure on the back of the idol seems to be slightly deflected due to some errors in the scaffolding posts which is being used to transfer the idol. They suggested that the idol immersion programme be done as early as possible as it is not advisable to keep the idol for long.

Based on the suggestions of the engineers, the Gajuwaka police instructed the organisers of the pandal to keep the public at least 100 ft away from the idol during darshan and support the scaffolding with rope and pulley or by using a crane to hold the scaffolding. The police also advised the organisers to take necessary precautions to protect the idol from rain. The organisers have been asked to immerse the idol in advance as advised by the engineers and that they will be held responsible for any untoward incident.