Ganesh immersion underway peacefully in Hyderabad (Lead)

Hyderabad, Sep 17 (IANS) The immersion of Ganesh idols in Hyderabad’s Hussain Sagar continued peacefully on Tuesday night amid tight security and elaborate arrangements.

Hundreds of idols were immersed in the lake in the heart of the city since morning and many more were heading to the lake from various parts of the city and outskirts.

Thousands of devotees thronged the Tank Bund, NTR Marg and Necklace Road to participate in the Nimmajanam around the lake.

All the routes leading to Hussain Sagar were teeming with men, women and children accompanying the huge vehicles carrying the idols.

The movement of idols was still continuing at Charminar in the old city, which indicates that despite the best efforts, the immersion process may spill over to the next day.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner C. V. Anand appealed to mandapam organisers and people to cooperate and move idols faster and ensure early completion of immersion so that tomorrow, citizens don’t feel inconvenienced as it’s a working day.

He, along with Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi, Director General of Police Jitender, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Commissioner Amrapali Kata and Collector Anudeep Durishetty, made an aerial survey to assess the movement of the immersion procession.

He found that it was much better than last year and the south zone mandapam organisers responded to police requests and efforts for early departure.

Anand also expressed happiness that for the second time in a row, the tallest idol got immersed by 1.30 p.m. The 70-foot idol, popular as Khairatabad Ganesh, was immersed on NTR Marg.

The Commissioner said despite it involving a challenging procedure of moving the idol to the immersion point, the central zone police teams and the Utsav committee members toiled and succeeded in completing the immersion.

The Balapur Ganesh also reached Hussain Sagar early for the immersion.

Earlier, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy visited the NTR Marg for a personal feel of the immersion ceremony. He interacted with crane operators and GHMC workers and the facilities provided by government agencies for idol immersion and the general public.

The Police Commissioner briefed him on the technical aspects of immersion, the time taken, and the effort by police to move idols from all over the city earlier than in previous years. About one lakh idols were set up across the city on September 7. While some were immersed during the last couple of days, the majority of them were to be immersed on Tuesday.

More than 25,000 police personnel have been deployed for the smooth and peaceful conduct of the annual festival. Police were supervising the immersion in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits with 733 CCTV cameras. Police top brass kept a tight vigil at the historic Mecca Masjid near Charminar to prevent any untoward incident. Top police officials monitored the procession from the Police Command Control Centre.

Several tributary processions joined the main procession, billed as the biggest gathering for immersion after Mumbai. Elaborate arrangements had been made by the municipal authorities for immersion at five big lakes and 73 exclusive ponds. As many as 468 cranes have been set up for the immersion in GHMC limits. This includes 38 cranes set up at Hussain Sagar.

GHMC Commissioner Kata said 15,000 personnel, including sanitation, engineering and others, would work in three shifts for 24 hours. Hyderabad Metro Water Supply & Sewerage Board has set up 122 water camps along the procession route and made arrangements for the distribution of 35 lakh water packets. Hyderabad Metro Rail has announced that it will run the services beyond midnight. The last trains in all directions will leave at 1 a.m. and reach their respective destinations at around 2 a.m.

--IANS

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