Following Mayor Shubha Raul’s advice on an eco-friendly festival, civic officials broached the subject of shorter idols in the meetings with idol makers and the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Mandals' Co-ordination Committee for Ganeshotsav, which have begun last month.

“We will make it mandatory for household Ganpati idols to be immersed in artificial lakes and wells, as it will save traffic time and also sea-pollution,” Raul said. While there are over 1 lakh household Ganesh idols, the number of public idols is expected to be nearly 7,000 this year.

“The BMC cannot make it compulsory for us to reduce the height of idols as it is a matter of faith. It is impossible to reduce the height of Lalbaug cha raja,” said one mandal representative. Vice-president of the coordination committee, Naresh Dahibaonkar, said that they would appeal to the mandals. “We hope to get positive response but it cannot be made compulsory,” he said.

The city’s idol makers have also refused to oblige with the eco-friendly idols, instead insisting on continuing to use Plaster of Paris.

To create awareness among idol makers, the civic administration also screened a short film on eco-friendly idols at the last meeting.

“It takes three months’time to make one eco-friendly idol, there are at orders for at least 7,000 idols during Ganeshotsav at each idol-maker’s studio. It is not possible to follow the norm,” said Dahibaonkar, adding that an idol-maker from Kolkata had been invited to a Pedder Road studio last year on an experimental basis.