Mysuru: The city celebrated Gowri-Ganesha festival with great fervour and gaiety yesterday, with devotees thronging Ganesha Temples across the city right from the morning to pay their obeisance to the gaiety.

All the Ganapathi Temples in the city witnessed huge rush of devotees since early morning. Incidentally, Gowri-Ganesha festival came on the same day this year on Sept. 14.

The 101 Ganapathi Temple at Agrahara, Ganesha Temple close to Kote Anjaneyaswamy Temple at the Palace North Gate, Ganapathi Temple adjacent to K.R. Police Station, Veeranagere Ganapathi Temple and all other Ganapathi Temples were specially decorated for the festival and special pujas were performed.

The city was dotted with Ganapathi idol installations along streets,  lanes and other vacant spaces, with the major ones being Vontikoppal’s 8th Cross Ganesha Pandal managed by  Sri Prasanna Vidya Ganapathi Mahotsava Charitable Trust (SPVGMCT), where a major musical event is organised every year, near Hotel Airlines in Chamarajapuram, close to Ramaswamy Circle, Off D. Devaraj Urs Road (Bellikatte Mission), at Nazarbad Park etc.

Ganesha idols of more than 20 ft. height were installed at several places in the city.

The other Ganapathi installation  spots were near Preeti Sagar Hotel on Vinoba Road where an idol of ‘Vruksha Maate’ Saalumarada Thimmakka was installed along with Ganapathi idol in an effort to spread a message on the importance of environmental conservation, which drew special public attention, idol featuring Lord Ganesha riding on a tiger at K.G. Koppal, Lord Ganesha riding on a lion at Thonachikoppal.

The other Ganesha idol attractions were the ones on Swimming Pool Road in Saraswathipuram where as many as 21 Ganesha idols were neatly arranged, at Nazarbad Park where an idol of Lord Eshwara carrying Ganesha was installed, Jodi Basava Temple in Kuvempunagar, where idols of peacocks stood on either side of Lord Ganesha idol and at Kesare where the installation featured as many as 1008 Ganesha idols of various sizes, which attracted a large crowd throughout the day.

The festival was also celebrated at Madhava Kripa, the city RSS office  on JLB Road. MP Yaduveer Wadiyar visited some of the Ganapathi pandals in the vicinity of Devaraj Urs Road later in the day and offered prayers to Lord Ganesha.

The MCC had deployed mobile water tanks for Ganesha idol immersion, with the vehicles stationed at specified spots at the scheduled time, for enabling the public to immerse their idols later in the evening.