Hyderabad, Sep 26 Over 20,000 Lord Ganesha idols were immersed in waterbodies here, marking the completion of Vinayaka Chavithi (Chaturthi) festivities on Saturday, a top official said.
The festivities started on September 14, and ‘nimajjanam’ (immersion) began on September 17.
“The Ganesh festival 2026 immersion ceremony — an important event in the calendar of Hyderabad City Police — has been peacefully completed. More than 20,000 Ganesh idols from Hyderabad and nearby places were immersed here,” Hyderabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar told reporters.
Sajjanar and other police officials, grooved to the music near the Hussain Sagar lake here as the mega event came to an end.
He said the immersion process gained momentum after the immersion of the 69-ft-tall Ganesh idol installed at the famous pandal at Khairatabad and the idol of Balapur pandal in Hussain Sagar lake on Friday.
The giant idol at Khairatabad is the major attraction of the festival in Telangana. The immersion process went on continuously round-the-clock since Friday, he said.
“We ensured Ganesh idols were immersed peacefully. There were no untoward incidents,” the Hyderabad Police chief said.
The Commissioner said almost 30 lakh people visited the ‘Khairatabad Bada Ganesh’ and 15 lakh people at the famous Ganesh pandal at Balapur in the city.
Elaborate arrangements were made in Hyderabad for the immersion of Ganesha 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 have been 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)
