Hyderabad, September 24: The Ganesh idol immersion procession stretched into the second day with the last of the idols given a fond farewell on NTR Marg at 11 a.m on Thursday.
The gigantic Khairatabad Ganesh, over 40 feet in height, which is generally immersed during early morning hours every year, got delayed by four hours.
The delay was caused as the main procession started late. The procession was expected to start at around 10.30 a.m but pandal organisers began to load the idols on to lorries and other vehicles only after noon. As a result the main from Balapur to Tank bund began only after that.
Generally, the Balapur Ganesh reaches the Charminar at around 2 p.m. But this time it reached only around 6 p.m. Even processions from other points like Puranapul, BHEL and Secunderabad started late, leading to delay of over five hours.
As thousands of people came to witness the Khairatabad Ganesh idol immersion, traffic at Khairatabad, Raj Bhavan road, Somajiguda, Secretariat and Lakdi-ka-pul came to a halt, causing inconvenience to daily commuters.
Police had cordoned off Upper Tank bund road, NTR Marg and Necklace Road almost till noon for the immersion process and hundreds made a beeline to the lake. Earlier, traffic restrictions used to be lifted by 8 a.m.
Even as last of the idols was immersed in the Hussain Sagar, over 2,000 workers of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) swung into action, to remove piled up garbage.
From September 13 to 23, GHMC has lifted garbage of 3,360 MT from NTR Marg (640 MT), Tank bund (370 MT), mandapams (900 MT) and tree cutting (650 MT). By Thursday evening, a staggering 800 MT was lifted throughout the city.
–Agencies