From highways to homes, Hyderabad bustles with Ganesh Chaturthi festivities

From streets lit up with twinkling fairy lights and to drummers bringing Ganesh idols home to volunteers navigating tall idols on the streets with barge-poles, Hyderabad wore a festive look ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi. But along with colour and celebration, the city is also bracing for the practical challenges that come with it.

On National Highway (NHH) 44, near the Suchitra junction, the scene has turned into a spectacle over the past week. Rows of temporary sheds line the road, each packed with Lord Ganesh idols of various sizes and designs, while earthmovers and trailers stand ready to ferry them into colonies, markets and pandals. By nightfall, the highway resembles a moving carnival: families bargaining for idols, devotees breaking into dance as trolleys begin their journey, and motorists, sometimes stuck in traffic, watching the spectacle unfold with a mix of awe and frustration. “I was driving towards Bengaluru, but I have ended up in the middle of a celebration,” said a bemused traveller.

Similar scenes played out at Dhoolpet, a traditional hub for idol-making and sale, where traffic diversions have been announced to manage the rush. In other pockets of the city, devotees can be seen helping vehicles carrying towering idols negotiate the flyovers and low-hanging wires by lifting cable bundles with wooden sticks.

The sight is both joyous and tense, especially after recent electrocution incidents in Hyderabad that claimed nine lives, including five during a Krishna Janmashtami procession in Ramanthapur and two during Ganesh idol transportation in Bandlaguda. Anxiety rises each time an idol brushes against a dangling power line, but the processions carry on, driven by faith and festivity.

In corporate offices and private firms, the festive spirit set in a day early, with employees gathering for pooja on Tuesday evening. Decorative lamps, floral arrangements and small idols of Lord Ganesh adorned workspaces, giving a preview of the larger celebrations awaiting the city.

Residential colonies too are abuzz with preparations. Gated communities have strung colourful buntings across entry gates, pandals are being readied in courtyards, and children were seen helping arrange lights and flowers. In several apartment blocks, volunteers spent the evening setting up stages and sound systems for cultural programmes that will accompany the main pooja tomorrow, lending the city’s neighbourhoods a sense of shared anticipation.

Yet, even as the festive mood builds, parts of Hyderabad remain inconvenienced by the fallout of safety measures after the Ramanthapur tragedy. Internet and cable operators, in a hurried drive to clear dangling wires, have left lakhs without connectivity.

In Trimulgherry and Alwal, broadband firms issued outage alerts on Tuesday morning, while in Ramanthapur, residents have endured over a week without services, even as technicians warn of several more days of disruption.

For many, the only sign of relief came through apologetic text messages. “As a gesture of apology, we will be adding up to seven days extra to your ongoing plan,” read one such notification from an internet service provider.

“This severing of telecom fibre has led to widespread disruption of essential internet services. Over the last few days, this has worsened the situation and is affecting critical connectivity in both urban and rural areas,” read a statement issued by the Cable Operators Association of India.