Hyderabad bids adieu to Lord Ganesha

Hyderabad: A sea of devotees converged on the streets on Tuesday to bid an emotional farewell to Lord Ganesha, amidst the pulsating beat of drums, showering of flowers and colours, and chants of ‘Ganapati Bappa Morya’ and ‘Ganesh Maharaj Ki Jai’.

This year the arrangements made were perfect and everything went off as planned by the new Commissioner of Police C V Anand and his team in a peaceful manner and as per the suggested schedule. The immersion process also witnessed perfect coordination between various wings like GHMC, NDRF and other relate departments.

The ‘Shobha Yatra’ passed off peacefully and the 70-feet idol of Ganesha was immersed at 13.40 pm. The organizers who started the process of dismantling the idol at Khairtabad from Monday night and the last puja was performed on Tuesday morning. Similarly hundreds of flower decked vehicles accompanied by troupes of drummers and DJs from Khairtabad, Secunderabad, Begum Bazar and Balapur were taken out with devotion and fan fare.

While some carried the idols in trucks, some were seen carrying them tied to the rooftop of the cars. People of all ages, including children participated with religious fervour in the yatra.

The Od City’s main procession started from Balapur via Charminar and Mozamjahi Market. Several Ganesha idols from Balapur, Chandrayangutta, Lal Darwaza, Shalibanda, Begum Bazar, Goshamahal and other joined the main procession of Balapur.

All the major roads leading to the main immersion points, including Tank Bund, and other lakes were under hawk-eyed vigil of the police. Police teams were seen patrolling the Hussain Sagar area in boats while NDRF and GHMC staff started clearing the debris soon after the idols were immersed. The ‘Pahelwan Ganesh’, famous as ‘Begum Bazar-ka-Raja’ drew huge crowds. Over 25,000 police personnel along with the RPF, CRPF, RAF and other personnel were deployed as part of the massive security cover.

Immersion ponds

Nearly 17 cranes were arranged for Ganesh idol immersion. As many as 73 artificial ponds, including 27 baby ponds, 24 portable ponds and 22 excavated ponds, and 468 cranes were set across Greater Hyderabad

Richmond laddu @ Rs1.87 cr, Balapur laddu @ Rs 30.01 lakh

Laddu auctions saw unprecedented rates. The highest laddu bidding was at Keerthi Richmond Villas in Sun City of Bandlaguda. It was auctioned for Rs 1.87 crore. Balapur Ganesh laddu was auctioned

for Rs 30.01 lakh.