Hyderabad: Over 1,700 Durga idols are to be installed in the city for Dasara with the Navratri festvities beginning from from October 12. The GHMC will install 10-feet Bathukammas at all major junctions from the fifth day of the festivities.
Over 150 hoardings will come up greeting citizens for the state festival. There will be 3D lighting at the Clock Tower and Kacheguda on all nine days, and special lighting on the Tank Bund.
The job has been jointly taken up by the GHMC and the Buddha Poornima Project of the HMDA, while the urban forestry wing of HMDA is working on creating “Bathukamma Trails” on Necklace Road, along the railway track, at a cost of Rs 50 lakh.
Over 10 varieties of flowers like Senna, Ipomoea, Katla, Teku, hibiscus. stick bush, jasmine, apart from seasonal flowers like Gunuka (celosia), Tangedu (Tanner?s Cassia), Banti (marigold), Chamanti (chrysanthemum) are being cultivated along the stretch of Necklace Road.
However, the work has been stalled as a pipeline is being installed by the Water Board to divert water from the Kukatpally nalas away from the Hussainsagar. Most of the idols will be immersed in the Hussainsagar at the NTR Marg.
Algae, wastes dirty Hussainsagar ghats
The state-wide celebration of Bathukamma will start on October 12. Bathukamma is a floral festival, where more than 10 varieties of flowers are used to make a gopuram-like structure that is immersed in water bodies.
There will be a procession from the Lal Bahadur stadium to the Bathukamma ghat of Hussainsagar to immerse the Bathukammas. But the shallow water of the ghat is yet to be cleaned of the algae and the waste that has accumulated.
GHMC officials have said that there will be an inspection of the ghat by a combined team of the HMDA, Water Board and GHMC officials.
They have also said that the ghat will be cleaned before Saddula Bathukamma and silt will be removed. The traffic police will divert vehicles on the routes for the nine-day festivities. The public will be informed about the temporary diversions and the alternative routes.
L.S. Chawhan, DCP Traffic 1, Hyderabad said, “Elaborate traffic plans will be in place.”
On Saddula Bathukamma, the last day of the festival, there will be processions all over, where women will carry the Bathukammas and proceed towards the water bodies while singing praises of Goddess Gowri.
The state tourism department has introduced four special tour packages for the season. These packages will include trips to Yadadri, Kolanupaka, Warangal, Gadwal, Alampur, Farhabad, Mallelatheertham and Srisailam.
