Sangameswarar car festival passes off peacefully

The car festival of Kottai Sangameswarar Temple being held under police protection in the city on Tuesday. Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

The car festival of the Kottai Sangameswarar temple passed off peacefully on Tuesday with police protection.

The car festival of the ancient temple in Fort area was revived in 2011 after 18 years.

On Tuesday, the car rolled out with 1,500 police personnel guarding it. Peruar Adhinam Marudachala Adigalar, Shivashree Krishnamurthy swamigal, and Gowmara Mutt Kumaragurupara swamigal attended.

The car wound up its way through Easwaran Koil Street, Perumal Koil Street, NH Road and Big Bazaar Street and returned to the temple at 12.20 p.m.

R. Duraiswami, MLA; South tahsildar Ravi; Corporation Zonal Chairman Adinarayanan; among others took part in the festival.

Commissioner of Police – Coimbatore City T.P. Sundaramurthy; DIG of Police H.M. Jayaraman; Deputy Commissioner of Police Hema Karunakaran; Superintendents of Police E.S. Uma, S. Nizamuddin and Paneerselvam; oversaw the security arrangements. Quick Reaction Team and commandos too were part of the security arrangements. As a result of the traffic diversion for the car festival, traffic snarls occurred at Ramanathapuram Junction, Sungam round-about, Railway Station Road, Tiruchi Road, Goods Shed Road, flyover, Brooke Bond Road, and Mill Road.