Prayagraj: After four days of festivities, the city on Wednesday bid an emotional farewell to Goddess Durga as hundreds of puja committees took out immersion processions, filling roads with devotional chants, drums and bursts of gulal. The immersion of idols began on Tuesday and continued through Wednesday at designated water bodies across the district, with the administration putting in place arrangements to regulate the movement of devotees and vehicles.This year, an artificial pond was also created beneath the new Yamuna bridge, where several barwaris brought their idols for immersion. The facility provided an additional designated site and helped reduce pressure on other immersion points.The district administration had also made arrangements at designated ponds, including the major immersion point at Andhawa in Jhunsi, to prevent immersion in Ganga and Yamuna and facilitate better crowd management. More than 2,100 Durga idols were immersed at different locations across the district on Tuesday and Wednesday.At Andhawa, processions carrying idols started arriving from Tuesday afternoon. Vehicles carrying the idols were routed through separate entry and exit points to prevent congestion. The flow continued until late evening, with several puja committees reaching the site with music, drums and devotional chants.Members of different barwaris and Durga Puja committees danced to the beats of dhak as they waited for their turn. Devotees applied gulal on each other and raised slogans of ‘Joi Durga Maai Ki Joi’ while accompanying the idols to the immersion point.Several committees also chose Wednesday for the immersion. Prayagraj Municipal Corporation teams were deployed to clean the immersion sites alongside the celebrations, with cleaning work continuing after the processions. Police personnel, jal police and civil defence volunteers were also deployed to maintain security and regulate crowds.The immersion processions passed off peacefully without any untoward incident, officials said. For devotees, however, the celebrations ended on an emotional note as they bid farewell to the deity after days of worship and festivities.
