big adieu to bada ganesh

The Shobha Yatra carrying the 70-foot-tall Khairatabad Ganesh idol concluded at around 1:45 pm with its immersion in the Hussain Sagar amid Jai Ganesha chants.
The immersion was done by crane No: 4 installed at NTR Marg, within a record time of 10 minutes. After the yatra, the immersion of thousands of Lord Ganesh idols in water bodies began on a grand scale on Tuesday.
The jumbo eco-friendly Ganapathi idol started the grand procession (Shobha Yatra) in the morning, and around one lakh devotees took part in the procession. The lane from Khairatabad to NTR Marg bore a festive look with devotees dancing to drums and chanting ‘Ganpati Bappa Morya, Agle Baras Tu Jaldi Aa.’
As the immersion was scheduled during the early hours of the day the city did not see the usual huge traffic jams that used to delay immersion functions.
According to the officials of the Ustav Committee everything took place as per schedule. A special pooja for the Khairatabad Ganesh began at midnight at the pandal. The loading of the idol began at around 2 am on a special trailer used to carry the idol. By 4 am, welding was completed.
The grand procession from the Khairatabad Pandal began at around 7 am and reached NTR Garden at 11 am and the final puja along with the Kalash puja was conducted. Immersing the idol required considerable time, as the dismantling of the iron welding of the giant Ganesh idol took almost an hour. This year around 25 lakh devotees visited the puja pandal during the last 10 days.
The Telangana government made elaborate arrangements for the immersion of the idols. Around one lakh idols are expected to be immersed this year.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy took part in the idol immersion procession and inspected arrangements for the immersion. He directed that special supervision should be made at the Hussain Sagar and other water bodies.
He also advised to assign duties to drivers and other staffers in three shifts and that steps should be taken to prevent untoward incidents and to warn the police to be alert at all times. The immersion in GHMC limits was supervised using 733 CCTV cameras and 15,000 personnel, including sanitation, engineering and others worked in three shifts for 24 hours for the immersion.
Around 468 cranes were set up for the immersion. Around 25,000 policemen were deployed to ensure security for the immersion.
The Hyderabad Traffic Police had imposed restrictions for the smooth conduct of the immersion which is expected to go on for 24 hours.
Minister Ponnam Prabhakar said the Hyderabad immersion programme will be carried out peacefully with the coordination of all departments.
“Immersions are still going on. We hope that the immersions will be over before Wednesday morning. Mandapa managements should come forward to immerse the idols. In Osmania, Puranapul, Afzalgunj areas some idols have queued up for immersion,” he said.