Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged people to work towards preventing water pollution during the immersion of Ganesh idols by ensuring that plastic and other waste does not go into sea.

The PM is on a one-day tour of Maharashtra and he began his journey by taking the darshan of Lord Ganesh in suburban Vile Parle in Mumbai.

"Just like Lokmanya Tilak had said that 'Swarajya' is my birth right. As we are approaching 75 years of our independence, we should say 'surajya' is our duty," the Prime Minister said.

The PM was addressing a gathering at Jio World Centre in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) after inaugurating three metro lines for Mumbai. He also inaugurated a state-of-the-art metro coach, the first metro coach under 'Make in India'.

"I would like to give a suggestion for 'One Indian-One Pledge'. We need to protect the environment and do away with single-use plastic. We have to avoid water pollution. During Ganesh visarjan, heaps of plastic and other waste go into the sea. We have to stop that," the PM Modi said.

The PM said that the NDA government has taken several "historic and unprecedented decisions" during the first 100 days of his second tenure.

The annual Ganesh festival, the trademark of Maharashtra, is held in the Hindu calender month of 'Bhadrapad' for 10/11 days.