Hyderabad: Festival fever gripped the city on Sunday as over two lakh people thronged to get a darshan of the popular jumbo Ganesh at Khairatabad. The unprecedented rush led a heavy traffic congestion along key stretches — like Punjagutta to Lakdi-ka-Pul — and saw commuters spend hours on the road. In fact, many visitors to the Khairatabad Ganesh pandal said it took them at least three hours to get a darshan of the 50-feet clay Ganesha.
According to organisers of the event, the footfall this year has doubled. “We have not seen such rush in a while. Also, last year, the crowd was thin as Covid-19 was still in the air,” said Sandeep Raj, joint secretary of the Khairatabad Ganesh Utsav Samithi.
Apart from traffic and law and order police, the railway police force too was pressed into service to manage the crowds and regulate traffic around the Khairatabad pandal. The metro station nearby also witnessed a heavy rush of passengers.
Volunteers of the utsav committee and local youth also jumped in to cooperate with the cops and ensure that all visitors had a smooth darshan of the five-headed gigantic Ganesh.
As is the tradition, come September 9, a special crane from Vijayawada will arrive to to lift a the jumbo idol and ferry it to the Hussainsagar Lake for immersion. The eco-friendly idol that weighs around 70 tonnes has been made with Rajasthan clay.
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