GHMC gears up for Ganesh Chaturthi fete

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has started to gear up for the 10-day festivities which is held annually with pomp and gaiety in the city.

This year, the Ganesh festivities are to commence from September 10 and conclude with idol immersion slated for September 19 coinciding with Anant Chaturdashi.

The State government has already clarified that there would be no restrictions imposed on the height of the idols to be installed during the festival and that pandal organisers can take a call based on the feasibilities in their locality. For Vinayaka Chaturthi, the government would also be arranging 70,000 clay idols through the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), 50,000 idols through the GHMC apart from another 40,000 through the Endowmnets department.

Meanwhile, the GHMC is drawing up plans to ensure the smooth conduct of the festivities which include civic works where required, environment conservation measures and also steps to make sure Covid-19 guidelines were followed.

The civic works include road restoration, road patch works all along the idol immersion procession route, sanitation near Ganesh pandals, fogging activities near water bodies and illumination.

“Apart from the procession



routes, as a part of the routine exercise, other roads will also be maintained and works will be taken up wherever necessary,” said GHMC Chief Engineer of maintenance wing, M Devanand. “As and when we receive representations from the Ganesh Committees pertaining to specific stretches, patch works will be taken up wherever required,” he said.

Meanwhile, as part of environment conservation measures, the civic body has decided to distribute 50,000 clay idols and encourage people to choose the idols made of clay over other materials. Another measure to protect lakes is cleaning the artificial ponds located near water bodies and making them ready by September 10.

In the GHMC limits, there are 21 artificial ponds and most of them are located near water bodies. The civic body personnel will be deployed near these ponds to help people with idol immersion. According to the officials, most of the artificial ponds are about 43×43 is size and adequate depth for idols of up to 8×10 feet to be immersed in them.

As part of the effort to put in place all arrangements for the 10-day festivities, the GHMC Commissioner DS Lokesh Kumar along with officials of line departments, including police, will visit major idol immersion procession routes.