Mumbai: While the city’s ganpati mandals are set to welcome devotees after a two-year hiatus, GSB-Seva Mandal in King’s Circle, has already generated a buzz with an insurance cover of ₹316.4 crore this year.
Of the corpus, ₹31.97 crore has been set aside as risk insurance cover for gold, silver and other jewellery, and a personal accident insurance of ₹263 crore for volunteers, priests, cooks, personnel deployed for valet parking and security guards.
“This has been done largely owing to the recent rise in the rate of gold and silver. However, a large part of the insurance covers our staff and volunteers, as we are expecting a high footfall at the pandal this year after a gap of two years,” said Amit Pai, trustee and spokesperson for the GSB Seva Mandal, the city’s richest mandal. The mandal took an insurance cover of ₹300 crore in 2016.
Pai said that while the option of attending poojas online is still an option, the mandal is “expecting the highest footfall ever recorded”. Over 3,300 volunteers are working in shifts this year.
The idol and the mandal will be adorned with 66 kg gold ornaments and jewellery crafted from over 295 kg silver, and other precious metals. One crore will cover the standard fire and special peril policy while public liability — which includes pandals, stadiums and devotees — has been secured with ₹20 crore.
The Ganesh idol, which will be revealed on August 29, is made of clay, grass and naturally extracted water colours, said officials.
In a first this year, the mandal has also decided to go paperless, by opting for end-to-end digitisation. “Pooja and prasad receipts will be emailed, and barcodes shared with devotees, which they can scan using their phones, at entry or while taking the prasad post-darshan. We are the only mandal with this initiative this year,” added Pai.
