Day after Ganesh idols’ immersion, traffic restrictions lifted in Hyderabad

The Ganesh festivities went off smoothly in Hyderabad with thousands of Ganesh idols being immersed with religious fervour amid tight police security. The Hyderabad Traffic Police have now lifted all traffic restrictions in the city.

In a press release, the Hyderabad Traffic police said that traffic is running normally at all junctions in Hyderabad. “All restrictions on traffic have been removed. One side general traffic is being run from Ambedkar Statue to Children’s park side on the upper tank bund side. Traffic coming from Secunderabad to Ambedkar statue side is being diverted from the lower tank bund. Similarly, there is slow movement of traffic (one side) from Telugu Talli Junction to VV statue side.”

The Hyderabad Traffic police have said that being a second Saturday, traffic is generally lesser today (Saturday). “Once we clear the NTR Marg (from Telugu Talli to I-Max rotary) of all the idols, we will open traffic coming from VV statue to Telugu talli side as well. This will take another one hour,” the police release said at 12 pm on Saturday.

Lifeguards were deployed at various water bodies, while control cells and first-aid centres were set up across the city. Ambulances and medical teams were also kept ready to meet any exigency. City police Chief CV Anand along with the Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali and other senior officers undertook an aerial survey on Friday. 

All senior officers were on the field during the day to take stock of the situation on Friday. The entire procession was monitored from the newly-inaugurated joint command control centre where senior officials of RTC (Road Transport Corporation), R&B (Roads & Bridges department), GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation), EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute), Fire, Electricity departments were present. Technology and drones were used by the Hyderabad police to ensure the festivities went off smoothly.

Around 10,000 idols, excluding those below 3 feet height, were installed across the city this year. The immersion process which began on Friday will end only on Saturday. Nearly 25,000 security personnel and 122 platoons were deployed across the city to ensure everything went off smoothly. Multiple Quick Response Teams (QRT), dog squads, and anti-chain snatching teams, SHE teams were also deployed.

Apart from existing cameras, 739 CCTV cameras were additionally installed across the main procession routes to monitor the movement of idols across the city, and 10 drones were deployed in and around Hussain Sagar Lake.

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