Ganesh Immersion Commences In Hyderabad

Despite the inclement weather and the frequent drizzling, the annual Ganesh Nimarjan began boisterously in the Telangana capital and its suburbs on Thursday.

Amid beats and bhajans, the processions started at 8 am in various parts of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and reached Hussain Sagar. Thousands of idols of different sizes were immersed in the central lake using cranes. Idols from the city as well as from the districts of Medak, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar were immersed in the lake.

The city's tallest Ganesh idol, the one at the Khairatabad pandal, was moved from its venue at 8 am and immersed into the lake by 2 pm - a first in over 60 years, since the Khairatabad idol is usually the last to be submerged, early the next morning.

While 10,980 Ganesh idols were permitted to be installed at various public places last year, this year the figure reached 11,094, and a large number of them are immersed on the last day, making the Ganesh Nimarjan a highly logistics-heavy and sensitive event. A huge amount of security has expectedly been provided for the processions.

City Police Commissioner M Mahendar Reddy said that over 25,000 police personnel drawn from the Hyderabad Police and from the other nine districts of Telangana, and from the neighboring States of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, had been deployed for the purpose. Apart from the police, 8,722 paramilitary forces were also deployed.

Emergency response teams were stationed at key locations on route, and 310 hyper-sensitive and 605 sensitive places had been identified and specially monitored, the Commissioner said. The event was also being covered by over 12,000 CCTV cameras, he added.

In addition, the city security wing of the Hyderabad Police deployed 23 bomb disposal teams, 23 sniffer dogs and two access control teams in the evening at key Ganesh pandals and temples, he said.

No traffic other than the procession itself is being allowed on the critical routes from Thursday 9 am till Friday 8 am. GHMC Commissioner Janardhan Reddy himself supervised the idols' immersion from the Tank Bund control room.

The nimarjan went on without any hassles until the evening when this article went to print.