In a departure from earlier practice of waiting for the Ganesh idols immersion to conclude, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) this time took up a continuous sanitation drive along the city streets during the centralised procession.
Deploying more than 2,800 workers apart from their regular sanitation staff, it tried to ensure that the road stretches were swept and the litter and garbage removed even as the procession moved towards Hussainsagar Lake. This has helped in most of the city roads being brought to their normal status by 11.30 a.m. in the morning.
Between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Tuesday , the GHMC staff removed around 1,030 tonnes of garbage from the procession routes and despatched it to the dumping yard at Jawaharnagar. A fleet of 17 private vehicles were roped in which made 85 trips shifting 1,027 tonnes while the civic body vehicles made 29 trips to move the garbage from road corridors, mainly near the main immersion point of Hussainsagar.
Most roads were made litter-free before noon itself and litter in the green patches on the Tank Bund along the statues too was removed, officials said. “We had restored normal road conditions by afternoon even near the immersion points but for the holding area. After the immersion of the Khairatabad idol, even this will be cleared,” said GHMC Central Zone Commissioner N. Satyanarayana.
For the first time, the civic body also took up washing of roads and operated sweeping machines to ensure complete sanitation. “There is heavy traffic on Tank Bund and this night even the bund road too will be given a wash. By Wednesday morning, this last stretch also will be available for motorists in neat and clean manner,” he said.
Retrieval of idol debrisThe exercise to retrieve debris from the large scale idol immersion at the Hussainsagar commenced late on Tuesday after the last of the idols, the ‘Maha Ganapati’ from Khairatabad was immersed around 7 p.m.
Unlike in the earlier years, the GHMC and Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) hope to remove the idol debris within 48 hours. “We have deployed more machinery and plan to complete it within 36 hours and in case of unforeseen contingencies, within 48 hours,” claimed an official.
To the HMDA fleet of vehicles, the GHMC has appended 10 trucks and six JCBs to hasten up the lake cleaning process. Instead of accumulating the material from the water body on the shoreline and then shifting it to the dump yard, the plan this time is to have the debris placed directly on the waiting trucks.
“This way, the shoreline and footpaths will not be affected and the shifting process too will be fast,” Dr. Satyanarayana, GHMC Central Zone Commissioner said. Last year, HMDA has removed around 3,700 tonnes from the lake and shifted to Jawaharnagar dump yard. Now, it is expected to be around 4,000 tonnes.
