Monumental 70-ft clay Ganesh idol in Khairatabad readied for installation

The idol of Lord Ganesh being readied in Khairatabad, Hyderabad, on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

The three-day rain spell has not disturbed the concentration of 68-year-old Chinnaswamy Rajendran as he climbs the wooden scaffolding around the idol of Lord Ganesh in Khairatabad and supervises the finishing touches to the eyes of the idol, which is to be installed on Vinayaka Chavithi, September 7. He stands at a perspective-defying 50-feet level with the eyes of the multi-faced Lord Ganesha. The monumental 70-foot tall idol towers over the surroundings as visitors stop and try to peep through the tarp and try to photograph and make reels for social media.

“It should be ready tomorrow or the day after,” says Srinu, an artist from Kakinada, in Andhra Pradesh, who gets the correct shade of pink mixing a bunch or acrylic colours. The 70-ft height of the idol is a marker of 70 years since the first 1-ft idol was installed in 1954. The artist and his boss and the associates walk barefoot on the scaffolding built with spindly logs of wood without a safety harness or a hardhat giving breathless moments to those who take safety seriously. “I am used to it. Don’t worry,” says Srinu.

The 70-foot idol has an installation of Rahu and Ketu on one side and Srinivasa Kalyanam on another. Another artist spray paints on a smaller idol that is a replica of the young Rama that has been installed in Ayodhya temple.

“Many people may not be able to go to Ayodhya so we thought we will create this here so that devotees can have darshanam,” says Singari Rajkumar, the chairman of the organising committee, and a descendent of S. Sankariah who started the tradition of celebrating the festival in the locality. The idol itself is called Saptamukha Maha Shakti Ganapati and has an inner core that is 25 tonnes of steel and 35 tonnes of clay mixed with straw, rice husk and other ingredients.

Though members of the organising committee remained tight-lipped about the cost of the idol, according to sources it is about ₹1 crore. 

The 70-foot idol is among the 1,40,000 idols that will be immersed in the Hussainsagar and other lakes in and around the city till September 17. “Last year we had 1,20,000 idols from the GHMC limits and the surrounding areas. The number has gone up this year. 60,000 are taller than 5 feet. There were will be additional 80,000 idols under five feet,” informed Shashidhar, the spokesperson for Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi. The farthest an idol will travel to the lake is from Balapur and the perhaps the closest is that of Khairatabad.