BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has set up five large temporary ponds in the city to facilitate smooth immersion of idols of Goddess Durga this year.
City engineer Bilash Kumar Behera said construction of the temporary ponds has been completed. All puja committees are being sensitised to perform the idol immersion ceremony in these water bodies.
Two ponds have been set up on the banks of Kuakhai near Pandra. Another two have come up on the banks of Daya river. The remaining one pond has been created near Sai temple close to Hansapal.
BMC officials said this year, Durga Puja is being celebrated at 187 pandals in the city. The height of the clay idol of Goddess Durga is more than 12 feet in many pandals. Hence, the new large ponds were created as the three existing ones used for idol immersion during Ganesh Puja were small in size.
The civic body has also designated 36 nodal officers for supervising sanitation activities of the city during the festival. Around 20 tonne of waste is being generated from all these pandals on a daily basis.
Keeping in view this huge volume of waste, mostly generated from the temporary melas and stalls put up around some of these pandals, the civic body has provided a dedicated fleet of 20 garbage collection vans. The vans have been asked to collect garbage twice a day.
The officers and sanitation workers will remain engaged till October 14, said BMC deputy commissioner for sanitation Manoranjan Sahu.