Lakhs of people from across the city, irrespective of caste and religion, took part in the annual Ganesh immersion procession on Wednesday.
Raising slogans of `Ganapathi Bappa Mouriya’ `Jai Bolo Ganesh Maharaj Ki Jai’ and `Jai Ganesh’, the devotees of Lord Ganesh began shifting the idols in a procession from their homes and pandals to the central immersion point, the Hussain Sagar Lake and the smaller water bodies like the the Durgam Cheruvu, Saroornagar, Safilguda and Yellamma lakes around the city.
With Wednesday being the final day of immersions of the idols, as many as 13,000 idols are expected to be immersed during the day, right up to midnight.
Though the main procession was started from Balapur after the auction of the famed laddu, the last ten days have seen idols being immersed in the various water bodies in the city and its surroundings.
The procession passed through Charminar, Moazzam Jahi Market, Basheer Bagh Crossroads culminated at the Hussain Sagar Lake.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials had deployed 85 cranes to help in the immersion of the idols at various places in the city while also installing floodlights, arranging drinking water distribution points, medical camps for emergencies and mobile toilets.
Leaving no stone unturned in their bid to provide security and maintain law and order, the city police made elaborate bandobast for the immersion day. About 2,000 police were deployed at Hussain Sagar Lake along with an additional 5,000 personnel being deployed in the Old City alone to prevent any untoward incidents.
These were among the 25,000 police personnel, including 4 companies of Rapid Action Force. Apart from the additional forces, aerial surveys, CCTVs at vital points and policemen with binoculars to keep a hawks-eye for any trouble mongers were in place.
All senior police officers were instructed to review the security situation on an hourly basis.
Along with the security measures, the police also engaged 26 expert swimmers to help rescue anyone who might tip over during the immersion.
The traffic wing of the city police had also imposed curbs on vehicles along the procession route while the South Central Railway and the Road Transport Corporation had already announced special MMTS trains and buses to facilitate the devotees reaching the immersion points.
The government has reportedly spent around Rs 28 crore on the arrangements for the immersion procession.
Earlier, Chief Minister K Rosaiah performing special puja to the huge Ganesh idol installed at Khairatabad, called on all sections of people to maintain peace and harmony during the festival.
The Khairatabad Ganesh idol would be taken in a procession at 8 pm to immerse in Hussainsagar Lake. The police also brought a hydraulic crane to lift the huge statue from Khairatabad.