HYDERABAD: Amid chants of “Ganapati Bappa Morya”, thousands of devotees took to the city’s streets on Friday for the final immersion of Lord Ganesh idols after 12 days of festivities. Processions of all sizes converged on Hussainsagar and nearly 80 lakes, tanks and other water bodies across the Core Urban Region.
The immersion remained largely peaceful, with no major untoward incident reported till the last reports came in. More than 11,000 idols were still awaiting immersion across Hyderabad, Cyberabad, Malkajgiri and Future City commissionerates, with the process expected to continue until Saturday.
Some processions began at 4 am, with small idols carried on two-wheelers and larger ones transported on decorated trucks. Drums, devotional chants and dancing devotees filled the roads as the processions moved towards designated immersion points.
The 69-foot Khairatabad Ganesh drew large crowds along its route to NTR Marg, where the Panchamukha Sankatahara Maha Ganapati was immersed on Friday afternoon.
Hyderabad police deployed around 20,000 personnel, 10,000 CCTV cameras and 24 drones. Twenty-eight SHE Teams and special crime teams were deployed to monitor crowds and prevent thefts and chain-snatching. Traffic restrictions around Tank Bund and Khairatabad helped regulate movement.
Hyderabad in-charge minister Ponnam Prabhakar, DGP CV Anand, City CP VC Sajjanar and senior civic officials conducted an aerial survey of Tank Bund and other areas.
The GHMC deployed 136 Ganesh Action Teams, 770 sanitation workers and 6,000 sweeping personnel. It also arranged 287 mobile toilets, 110 static cranes and 170 mobile cranes at immersion points.
TGSRTC operated 700 special buses round the clock. Of 44,242 idols across, more than 33,000 had been immersed by Friday evening. Around 4,400 remained in Hyderabad and 2,900 in Malkajgiri.