Tank Bund to be shut today

Hyderabad: The immersion of Lord Ganesh idols may stretch late into Monday considering only about 13,000 idols were immersed in the Hussainsagar lake till 9 pm on Sunday. Consequently, citizens may have to face traffic snarls on the first working day of the week as Tank Bund is likely to remain closed on Monday as well. Authorities had planned to complete immersion of about 25,000 idols by Sunday night but that target is likely to be missed.

Hyderabad city police additional commissioner Anjani Kumar said 13,000 idols were immersed and that he hoped to finish the process by 10 am on Monday. But going by the flow of idols, immersion is expected to go late into the afternoon. Thousands of devotees thronged the Tank Bund on Sunday to immerse idols and witness the immersion of the bigger Lord Ganeshas. The festive spirit was not dampened by the discovery of a body in the lake in the morning. Crowds peaked by evening with hardly any space available to move.

Police made extensive arrangements around the lake, the main immersion site, for the security and comfort of people. About 70 surveillance cameras, installed around the Hussainsagar, helped police and organisers to properly queue up the processions according to availability of cranes. Unlike last year, the police monitored the immersion at Command Control Centre on real time and coordinated with the traffic cops on the ground to send the processions to the available crane.

Senior police officials said that it has helped organisers avoid confusion and rush when the processions reached near the lake. Though there are fixed cranes for the processions coming from specific areas, this year police had more flexibility due the monitoring, officials said.