First day of new year sees massive crowd at Pune’s Dagdusheth Ganpati temple

Apart from the Dagdusheth Temple, devotees also visited the Siddhivinayak Temple at Saras Baug and other temples in the city

As devotees thronged the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple for darshan on the first day of the new year, there were massive traffic jams on Chhatrapati Shivaji Road, Bajirao Road, Laxmi Road, Kelkar Road and the surrounding roads. So much so that the road between Appa Balwant Chowk and Budhwar Chowk (Hutatma Chowk) had to be closed to the traffic by the Pune traffic police.

There were crowds at the temple throughout the day and the traffic police deployed additional security to keep the traffic moving. (HT PHOTO)

As many devotees parked their cars on the riverbed road, there were queues of vehicles seen on this road. Whereas internal lanes too were jam-packed with two-wheelers. There were crowds at the temple throughout the day and the traffic police deployed additional security to keep the traffic moving.

Kiran Pisal, a devotee, said, “At around 9 am on Wednesday when I went to take darshan of Dagdusheth Ganpati, there was a long queue and the entire Shivaji Road was blocked. It took us two-and-a-half hours to take darshan but it was worth it.”

Meanwhile, the Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple was bedecked with flowers on the occasion of the first day of 2025. Various religious programmes were organised at the temple since the morning. Apart from the Dagdusheth Temple, devotees also visited the Siddhivinayak Temple at Saras Baug and other temples in the city.

Mahesh Suryavanshi, treasurer of the Dagdusheth Ganpati Mandal Trust, said, “We had made all proper arrangements for devotees coming to take darshan on the first day of the New Year. The Pune traffic police also supported us and planned a bandobast accordingly.”

Amol Zhende, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said, “We had already planned the traffic in the city area as a large number of people were expected to visit the Dagdusheth Ganpati Temple. Accordingly, many roads were blocked and traffic was diverted…”