Ganesh Immersion: GHMC removes 7,334 tons of idol debris on Saturday

On Saturday, around 7,334 tons of idol debris, puja material and other items were retrieved from the 74 artificial ponds with the help of 427 vehicles and 67 excavators.

Hyderabad: With all the music, colour and festivity associated with the Ganesh festival, one of the biggest celebrations in the city, drawing to an end, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is now onto its next major task – that of clearing idol debris and puja material from the city’s lakes and water bodies.

On Saturday alone, around 7,334 tons of idol debris, puja material and other items were retrieved from the 74 artificial ponds with the help of 427 vehicles and 67 excavators. Of these, 330 vehicles and 40 excavators were those used by the corporation on a regular basis, while the rest were hired exclusively to clear the material after the idol immersion.

On Friday and Saturday, 89,505 idols were removed from the 74 artificial ponds, which was apart from the sanitation activity taken up to cleaning up the immersion routes. This work, which is likely to continue till whatever can be retrieved from the water bodies is done, is being carried out by 10,000 sanitation staff, who are working round the clock in three shifts.

On Saturday morning too, sweepers continued cleaning the procession routes with several tons of material collected and shifted to Secondary Collection and Transfer Points. From there, the material was transported to the Jawahar Nagar dump yard for recycling. All this is being done even as rains kept lashing the city intermittently.

The Entomology wing of the GHMC also took up fogging activity at many places where the immersion rituals were held. Apart from the artificial ponds, the remnants of idols, their frames and puja material including garlands, were fished out of the lakes including the Hussain Sagar.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority also deployed amphibious excavators, trash collectors and aquatic weed harvester-cum-trash collector to retrieve idol debris, puja material and other items from lakes in the city.