Amid tight security arrangements thousands of Idols of lord Ganesh were immersed in Hussain Sagar and 12 other lakes of Hyderabad as the 11-day long Ganesh Chaturthy festival came to an end on Thursday.
Heavy downpour which brought the city to a grinding halt from this morning failed to dampen the spirits of the devout as massive number of people turned up to bid the adieu to the elephant-faced God.
Khairatabad Ganesh, tallest in the city with a height of 58 feet was among the first to be immersed in Hussain Sagar.
Usually this used to be the last big idol to be immersed every year this time organisers agreed to be first for the convenience of the people. Police officials wanted the routine to be changed as last year it was immersed on the second day creating massive jam creating serious problems for the office bearers.
Arrangements for putting the 58 feet gigantic idol on a special open trucks had started around midnight last night and the procession started early in the morning despite heavy rain. Finally it reached Tank bund around 1 pm and a huge crane immersed it in the lake at 1:50 pm.
Meanwhile, the Balapur Ganesh procession started at around 11 am and crossed the historic Mecca Masjid Charminar complex at around 4 pm.
Now it was moving towards Moazzam Jahi Market.
Thousands of idols of other areas have also joined the procession at different points including Charminar and Moazzam Jahi Market.
The never ending line of the heavy trucks carrying colourful idols in various sizes and shapes and the huge gathering of onlookers brought the normal flow of traffic to a full stop. The arterial road from Charminar to the Hussainsagar lake was barricaded on either aides and other vehicles were not allowed.
Hyderabad City Police Commissioner M Mahinder Reddy said that the procession was so far peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any where.
Apart from deploying 25000 personnel the police were also using more than 12000 CCTV cameras and mobile cameras to keep an eye on the trouble makers. Five additional commissioners two joint commissioner, 9 deputy commissioners and 66 assistant commissioners were supervising the security arrangements at different places in the city.
The state director general of police Anurag Sharma was also keeping an eye from a special control room at his office.
As the heavy rains of last one week damaged the roads at many places and they were poked with hundreds of potholes the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials worked overnight to fill them. As the fresh heavy rains brought the roads under water the Ganesh procession had to face many hurdles in reaching the points of immersion.
The Ongoing Hyderabad Metro project works also forced the authorities to divert the vehicles carrying the idols at many places.
In view of the drive by the environmentalist against pollution in the water bodies specially Hussain Sagar the authorities made special arrangements by creating separate ponds in the lake for immersion. They also deployed the special teams to immediately remove the debris from the lake.
Hyderabad Mayor Bonthu Rammohan Rao expressed happiness over the early immersion of the idols and hoped that the process will be completed by midnight