The GHMC has cleared close to 7,500 metric tonnes of garbage from various parts of the city on Saturday, post the Ganesh idol immersion festivities on Friday. This is about 1,000 MT more than the quantity of waste collected by the civic body on normal days.
More than 10,000 sanitation workers formed into Ganesh Action Teams and toiled day and night in three shifts to clear the trash from the procession routes, and also at the immersion points. Ninety-seven more vehicles were pressed into service over and above the 330 regular vehicles which carried away the waste generated from immersion to the solid waste processing facility at Jawaharnagar.
Twenty-seven more excavator machines in addition to the 40 regular ones were deployed to lift the debris and garbage and dump them in the trucks.
Immersion of Ganesh idols which began on Friday, continued on Saturday too, resulting in traffic issues across the city. The line of truck-trolleys carrying the idols towards the immersion points at Hussainsagar extended up to Basheerbagh even at the daybreak on Saturday.
Delayed inordinately on Friday due to rain, the processions from various parts of the city continued to arrive at the immersion points till dawn, and late too. A few pandals moved the idols on Saturday, as Friday was considered inauspicious.
According to data shared by GHMC, up to 3 p.m. on Saturday, over 89,500 idols were immersed in the artificial ponds created by the civic body for the purpose of immersion. They were all idols below the height of three feet.
GHMC did not have data of the larger idols immersed in Hussainsagar from its three sides, namely NTR Marg, Tank Bund and Necklace Road, while the police too kept mum about it.
Officials, however, confirmed that about 2,500 idols of more than three feet in height were lowered into the Saroornagar Tank, also known as Mini Tank Bund. There is no count of the idols immersed in lakes across the city and peripheries. According to official sources, the ban on immersion of idols made of Plaster of Paris was not adhered to at any lake.
A total 280 cranes — 130 of them mobile — worked day and night in lifting the idols from pandals and setting them down in lakes/ponds.
