BMC defers penalty hike on Ganesh mandals for digging up roads during Ganeshotsav

Indian Express

31-07-2025

On Thursday Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister – Eknath Shinde directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to not hike the penalty on Ganesh mandals or organisers who would be digging up roads in the city for erecting pandals.
The deputy CM's move came one day after representatives of the Ganesh Mandal expressed their grievances against Mumbai's civic body for hiking the penalty. Earlier on Wednesday, Mumbai's guardian minister – Mangal Prabhat Lodha also met the representatives and assured them of bringing down the penalty amount.
Every year during Ganeshotsav, festival organisers often dig the roads for setting up pandals or erecting barricades for crowd management. After the festival ends, ward level teams inspect the roads and if they find potholes or craters caused by the digging, a penalty is levied on them. The total number of potholes that have been caused will be counted and for each pothole Rs 15,000 penalty was supposed to be imposed on organisers this year. While last year, the penalty amount stood at Rs 2,000 for every pothole.
'The BMC administration had decided to increase the penalty for digging the roads of Mumbai during Ganeshotsav. I have discussed this issue with Mumbai's municipal commissioner and it has been decided that the penalty will not be increased this year and for violations caused and charges will be imposed as per old rules,' Shinde said in a post on X on Thursday.
'However, the roads in Mumbai are being concretised on a large scale and it is an appeal to the organisers to think of positive alternatives for erecting pandals so that the process of digging roads is not required,' he added.
Civic officials said that for crowd management, organisers often erect barricades using bamboo sticks which are dug into the ground.
Officials maintained that while there is no restriction in setting these barricades, once the festival is over, the organisers should also responsibly fill the dug-up portions.
'After digging the roads, the organisers didn't even fill them up and the BMC had to repair them by using cold mix. Repairing concrete roads is way more expensive therefore, the penalty amount was hiked. The organisers should take a note and try not to dig up roads, instead they should erect pandals in open gardens and grounds,' an official said.
Usually famous pandals like the Lalbaug cha Raja in south Mumbai are penalised for digging up roads. Last year the BMC had imposed a penalty of Rs 72,000 on the organisers, while the year before, a penalty of Rs 3.66 lakh was imposed.