Heavy bandobast mark Ganesh immersion and Friday prayers

Hyderabad: In order to avoid any possible contingency given that the Ganesh immersion and Friday prayers were on the same day, police made elaborate bandobast across the city.

There were traffic diversions on roads connecting Charminar and the four zones and huge security arrangements along the 19-km stretch from Balapur to the Hussainsagar and in the interiors of Old City and other sensitive areas.

Apart from the existing cameras and use of 10 drones, an additional 739 CCTV cameras were installed along the main procession routes.

In addition to city police and paramilitary forces, additional police forces from districts were deployed as part of the security build-up.

Quick Reaction Teams (QRT), Rapid Action Force (RAF) and City Security Force (CSF) commandos took guard in the sensitive areas along the idol procession routes. Also in place were multiple quick response teams, bomb disposal dog squads, anti-chain snatching teams and SHE teams.

Pandal organisers, general public and social workers coordinated with the police and other volunteers to ensure a smooth procession.

The joint command control centre saw the active involvement of senior officials from departments like GHMC, HMDA, Transco, water works, fire, RTA, and medical and health. Overall, 24,132 police personnel and 122 platoons were deployed.

Around 9,523 idols that were above three feet in height were installed in the city this year.