Hyderabad: The 61-feet Khairatabad Ganesha idol is all set for the festival on Monday, together with a 750-kg laddu, a 70-feet shawl and a 70-feet that were contributed by devotees.
The bamboo scaffolding used during the construction was removed on Sunday, revealing the idol in its glory. Devotees thronged Khairatabad to have the first look at the city’s tallest-ever idol. This year, the idol has is named Dwadashaditya.
One of the devotees, Mr J Srikanth, who runs an air coolers business, donated the 750-kg laddu. He said 15 people had worked on preparing the laddu and its container. The cooks, fabricators and welders worked for 36 hours to complete the prasadam. The total cost was put at Rs 90,000.
The laddu used to be previously made in AP. The practice was stopped for a few years after a stampede took place during the ladu prasadam distribution.
This year, the making of the idol started three months in advance. The Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samiti had previoulsy planned to decrease the height of the idol. It turned out to be one foot taller than last year due to the design.
The Dwadashaditya Ganesha idol has 24 hands and 12 heads which is adorned with 12 snakes. The idol and the arrangements cost up to Rs 80 lakh, and about 150 artists took part in its making. Special prayers will be conducted on Monday morning by Veda pandits from Warangal and local priests. Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, Union mininister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy, Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender and are expected to offer prayers on the first day.
