The exercise, which began on Tuesday evening and continued till late on Wednesday afternoon, aroused the curiosity among the passers-by. However, people just preferred to have a glimpse and avoided standing at the site as the slush emitted a foul smell.

The trenches were to be laid to facilitate the immersion of Ganesha idols. However, the VMC had to drop the idea after realising that bulldozers would get stuck in the slush.

Executive Engineer (Technical) Shailesh Naik told Express Newsline that one excavator removed more than four truckloads of slush. It was then dumped in the garbage dumping site at Vadsar. The Fire Brigade later cleaned up the site with a water tanker.

The slush was cleared from near the Vadodara Fire Brigade. Naik said that now those with small Ganesha idols would be able to walk up to a distance to immerse the idols. Instead of the side near the Music College, cranes will be placed near the Pratap cinema this year as there was about 9 feet-deep water in that portion. The immersion is on Friday.