Devotees carry the idol of Lord Ganesha for the immersion during the procession on the last day of Ganesh Chaturthi festival, at Balapur in Ranga Reddy district on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: G. Ramakrishna
The Ganesh immersion procession in Hyderabad is likely to extend till Friday afternoon. Officials from the city police said that until 9 p.m. of Thursday night, only 40% of idol immersions was finished.
Officials said that post the immersion of the 63-foot Khairatabad Ganesh by Thursday afternoon, the cranes were idle and there was a delay in the procession from Secunderabad and other parts of the city.
City Police Commissioner C.V. Anand said that the idol immersion was likely to go on till Friday afternoon. “As of 9 p.m., we still have 60% of registered idols to go through. The procession of Friday otherwise went peacefully without any untoward incidents,” said the official.
In a proactive measure to ensure the smooth and safe conduct of the Ganesh immersion celebrations in Telangana, an aerial survey was conducted by a team led by Home Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, DGP Anjani Kumar, Mr. Anand and Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) D. Ronald Rose.
The Cyberabad police, meanwhile, said that they witnessed uninterrupted and peaceful idol immersions with around 4,500 police personnel ensuring the safety of the public. Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Raveendra supervised the immersions in all areas under the commissionerate through Public Safety Integrated Operation Centre (PSIOC).
He said that officials of different departments of the government, including GHMC, TSSPDCL, R&B, Road Transport, Fire Services, Irrigation, Medical and Health departments, were working in coordination
In Cyberabad Commissionerate alone, more than 10,979 Ganesh idols were installed this year. A total of 44 static cranes have been set up for Ganesh immersion within the Commissionerate. “As many as 4,474 idols were immersed on Thursday, of which 281 have been arranged to be immersed in the IDL pond in Kukatpally. There are 34 ponds in Cyberabad, of which 26 are in the GHMC limits, 12, including six baby ponds, in Medchal, 21, including eight baby ponds, in Rangareddy and one baby pond in Sangareddy,” said the official.
While 1,712 idols were installed in the Madhapur zone, 3,33 were installed in Balanagar zone, 2,112 in Rajendra Nagar, 1,912 in Medchal and another 1,912 from Shamshabad zone.
Rachakonda police Commissioner D.S. Chauhan said that all kinds of security measures were being taken to ensure that the immersion went on smoothly. He said that this time, fully automatic cranes were installed near the lakes of each pond and that the traffic police department had ensured that motorists did not face any problems on the procession routes.
