Shobha Yatra of Khiaratabad Mahaganapathi idol begins

HYDERABAD: The largest and the last to reach the Hussain Sagar the 63 feet huge Mahaganapathi idol started its journey to be immersed in Hussain Sagar Lake on Thursday.

Special cranes were used to lift the Ganapathi and place him on a huge trailer truck which would reach Hussainasagar around noon. The immersion could happen around 2pm, the organisers said.

This year Khairatabad Mahaganapathi attracted huge crowds that thronged the narrow lanes of Khairatabad just to have a glimpse of the huge Ganapathi. Police made arrangements for the smooth movement of the tallest Ganapathi.The Khairatabad Ganapthi has a seven-decade-long history. It was in 1954 that a devotee named Sankarayya established a one-foot-long Ganapathi for pooja and every year the length of the idol increased by a feet till 2014. However, after some restrictions were imposed on the length the Ganapathi stopped to grow any further. Similarly, the organisers started using clay instead of POP as per the pollution control board norms.

Despite the restriction imposed by the Telangana High Court on immersion of POP-made idols, more than 1 lakh idols of different materials and sizes would be immersed on Thursday in Hussainsagar and other artificial ponds in different places of the City. The Ganesh Utsav Samithi made it clear that it would go ahead with the immersion as it was too late to implement the POP ban.

Authorities have kept 36 heavy cranes ready at 13 places around Hussain Sagar and special lighting was arranged to facilitate smooth immersion at night time.

A Ganesh idol coming from the Laldarwaza area for immersion in Hussainsagar accidentally fell down, when the tractor carrying the idol hit a rope set up to block the road, near the Liberty-GHMC office junction. The organisers held that the police and GHMC workers responsible for the mishap.