Hyderabad, Sep 25 Thousands of idols of Lord Vinayaka were immersed in water bodies in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana on Friday, marking the culmination of the Vinayaka Chavithi (Chaturthi) festivities.
Amid chants of “Ganpati Bappa Morya”, devotees thronged the immersion points at the famous Hussain Sagar lake and other water bodies in the city. The idols were brought to the immersion points in decorated vehicles.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar said the Ganesh idol immersion processions were proceeding peacefully in the city.
“We are hopeful that the entire immersion activity will be completed by September 26 morning,” he told reporters.
Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations began across Telangana on September 14 with devotional fervour and gaiety.
The idol immersions began on the third day of the festivities. As of 4 pm on Friday, the 12th day of the festival, 33,133 idols from Hyderabad and surrounding areas had been immersed, including 10,367 within Hyderabad city limits.
Similarly, Ganesh idols of varying shapes and sizes were immersed in other parts of the state.
The ‘Khairatabad Bada Ganesh’, a major attraction during the festival in the Telangana capital, was immersed in Hussain Sagar lake here in the afternoon, followed by the famous Balapur Ganesh.
The 69-ft-tall Ganesh idol was installed at the Khairatabad pandal.
Meanwhile, the ‘laddu’ offered as ‘prasadam’ at the famous Balapur Ganesh pandal in the city was auctioned for Rs 39 lakh. Last year, it fetched Rs 35 lakh.
The auction of the ‘Balapur Ganesh laddu’ is one of the major attractions of the Vinayaka Chaturthi festivities in Hyderabad, though laddus offered at almost every pandal are also auctioned. Securing the laddu is traditionally believed to bring wealth and good fortune to the successful bidder.
Elaborate arrangements were made in Hyderabad for the immersion of Ganesh idols, with about 30,000 police personnel deployed for security, crowd management and traffic regulation, and more than 10,000 CCTV cameras used for surveillance, police said.
Additionally, 24 advanced drones and nearly 100 high-rise cameras were deployed along major thoroughfares to monitor crowd density and facilitate automated counting of idols, police had said.
Personnel equipped with high-powered binoculars and wireless sets were positioned on rooftops of elevated buildings along the procession routes, they said.
(PTI News)
