Hyderabad: Lord Ganesha farewell to be a bumpy ride

Hyderabad: Despite fixing roads on the procession routes, Ganeshas will have a bumpy ride this year. Due to wear and tear, thousands of manholes of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation have shrunken below the surface of the roads replicating potholes. 

The corporation which is filling several manholes has asked the water board to lift the manholes to the level of the road.

Citing no response from HMWS&SB, the water board has given clear instructions to its field level staff not to cover the manholes with the bitumen used for roads.

Civic body officials claimed that if they covered the manholes so that the Ganesh procession would be smooth during the immersion, water board officials would indiscriminately dig the roads to identify the potholes immediately after the event. 

They said that this would not only further damage roads but would also pose a danger to vehicles which carry big and medium idols to Tank Bund for immersion. 

Officials claimed that carrying out road repairs and making special arrangements for immersion day by spending Rs 15 crore would be useless if the manhole issue was not fixed by Saturday.

Highly placed sources in the corporation said that there were thousands of manholes in the 88-kilometre Ganesh procession route. 

When asked, Director(Operations), Azmeera Krishna was evasive only saying, “Everything is under control. I and my team have issued field level instructions.” 

Regarding the dangers manholes pose  during the procession, especially on the 18-kilometre main procession route from Balakpur, he said that the water board had made several special arrangements on the immersion day without revealing specifics.