GHMC gears up for Ganesh Chaturthi festival

GHMC will deploy 280 cranes at lakes located in different parts of the city to facilitate Ganesh Idol immersion and around 9,000 sanitation staff will be pressed into service under its jurisdiction

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is pulling out all stops and has launched elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of Ganesh Chaturthi festival that commences from August 31.

As a part of the exercise, the GHMC will deploy 280 cranes at lakes located in different parts of the city to facilitate Ganesh Idol immersion and around 9,000 sanitation staff will be pressed into service under its jurisdiction.

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NTR Marg, Saroornagar Lake and Sanjeevaiah Park Baby Pond are some of the locations where cranes will be deployed. According to GHMC officials, each crane at the immersion spot will have a dedicated team of sanitation workers.

“The sanitation workers will work in three shifts. At each crane, seven workers will be deployed and at each artificial pond seven to 14 workers will be deployed based on its size,” a GHMC official said, adding that at every 3 km to 4 km along the immersion procession route, 21 sanitation workers will be deployed.

In addition to these measures, the GHMC will also take up a slew of environmental conservation measures. To execute this task, the corporation is setting up artificial ponds in different parts of the city to encourage people to immerse Ganesh Idols in them instead of lakes.

A total of 24 portable prefabricated fibre reinforced plastic ponds will come up in different parts of the city. Unlike the existing artificial ponds that were built near lakes by excavating the ground, these portable ponds could be assembled and dismantled as per the requirements.

Apart from preparing artificial ponds, the GHMC is also taking-up massive works related to road restoration, illumination, setting up mobile washrooms and fogging along the procession route and places where idols are immersed and at Ganesh pandals that experience heavy footfall.

“All the works related to road restoration along the procession route will be completed by August 29,” GHMC officials, said. Meanwhile, the HMWS&SB will provide drinking water at Ganesh idol immersion places on the 3rd, 5th, 7th 9th and 11th day of the festival.