Guide to Mumbai Ganesh Visarjan

By Sharell Cook, About.com Guide

What becomes of the beautiful statues of Lord Ganesh once the Ganesh Chaturthi festival is over? They're placed in a body of water and left to disintegrate in a process called visarjan (immersion). In Mumbai alone, more than 150,000 statues are immersed each year! Find out when and where it happens in this Mumbai Ganesh Visarjan guide.

Ganesh Visarjan Dates

The largest Ganesh statues, on display to the public, are usually immersed on Ananta Chaturdasi -- 11 days after the first day of the Ganesh festival. However, many people who keep a Ganesh in their homes choose to perform the immersion much before this. There are no hard and fast rules as to when it's done. Rather it's up to personal preference. However, the immersions do follow a schedule and are only performed on selected days. These are as follows.

• One and half day Ganesh Visarjan – September 10, 2013.
• Three day Ganpati Visarjan – September 12, 2013.
• Five day Ganesh Visarjan – September 14, 2013.
• Seven day Ganesh Visarjan – September 16, 2013.
• Ananta Chaturdashi last day of Ganesh Visarjan – September 19, 2013.
• Immersion of the Andhericha Raja - September 20, 2013.

Ganesh Visarjan Locations

There are four main location in Mumbai where the Ganesh statues get immersed. If you want to see the largest and most famous Ganesh statues, you'll need to head to Girgaum (Girgaon) Chowpatty on Marine Drive in south Mumbai. (See the most convenient Mumbai hotels to stay in).

• Procession route for Lalbaugcha Raja
• Procession route for Mumbaicha Raja/Ganesh Galli

Juhu Beach in Mumbai's western suburbs is another popular place of immersion. (See the most convenient Juhu hotels to stay in). As too is Versova beach.

• Procession route for Andhericha Raja

Powai Lake, in Mumbai's central suburbs, receives a lot of smaller states that are immersed by families before Ananta Chaturdashi.

Dance Ganesh Visarjan

The immersions turn the streets into one mammoth party as the statues are paraded towards the ocean. A huge procession called Dance Ganesh takes place on the last day, complete with DJs, fire dancers, stilt walkers, lasers, lights, and thousands of revelers. It starts out from the Mahalaxmi Temple Compound in Breach Candy, central Mumbai, at around 4 p.m. and ends at the Haji Ali seafront.

Mumbai Ganesh Visarjan Tips

The large Ganesh statues take a long time to reach the ocean and be immersed. The slow moving processions commonly start out mid morning and go throughout the night, with the statue only being placed in the water early the next morning. Many roads are closed to traffic, so do take the Mumbai local train where possible. If you come by train, try and arrive at Grant Road railway station by around 1-2 p.m, then make your way slowly to Girgaum (Marine Drive) Chowpatty. It really starts getting crowded around sunset, from 6.30 p.m. onwards. Expect hundreds of thousands of people to still be there at sunrise too!

Mumbai Ganesh Visarjan Route Maps

Mumbai Traffic Police provides details of traffic arrangements and route maps.