An air of festive gaiety swept the city as a large number of people celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi on Wednesday. The festivities continued at the street corner Ganesh installations and at apartment complexes. On Thursday, many organisers served lunch to passers-by and localities.
In the evening, devotees indulged in pandal hopping as word spread of an idol made with coconuts or corn or where Lord Ganesha was surrounded by dinosaurs. The change in flag code has meant that the Tricolour is part of the decor in many locations. At Begum Bazaar, the pandal was covered in Tricolour. On Raj Bhavan road, the organisers used hundreds of corn-on-cob to make an idol, in Kavadiguda, the organisers used 17,000 coconuts to create a 36-foot high Ganesh idol.
The biggest draw of the pandals was the eco-friendly 50-foot high clay Ganesh idol at Khairatabad. Created at a cost of ₹1 crore, devotees thronged the area throughout the afternoon and night. The central location has been turned into a pedestrian-only zone for easy access to devotees.
“This arrangement for devotees with diversion of traffic will continue till the immersion day,” said a police official near Mint Compound. Hundreds of vendors and hawkers have set up tents in the area near Mint Compound, Khairatabad, and Lakdi-ka-pul area to sell their wares as devotees streamed in to have a darshan of Bada Ganesh.
“Every year we have around 250 installations in our locality. This year, the numbers are the same,” said a police official at Mangalhaat PS. It was in the inner lanes of many localities like Anand Bagh colony where residents were spoilt for choice as the space between pandals was hardly a few yards.
