Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh is on the path to achieve new heights, higher than when it was united. The first step towards this direction seems to be taken as the state gears up to celebrate Ganesh Chaturti, a festival celebrating birth of the Hindu lord, who is worshipped before any venture is undertaken.



Andhra Pradesh’s largest city, Vizag, will be having at least five Ganesh idols taller than the much celebrated Khairatabad Ganesh idol of Telangana’s largest city, Hyderabad.



While the Khairatabad Ganesh idol this year would be 60 feet tall, there are about half a dozen idols in Vizag which would be measuring more than 60 feet.



The tallest of them would be the one at Dondaparthy which would be measuring about 71 feet.



The 62-feet Ganesh idol which would be new to Vizag this year will be the one near Waltair depot, the first such tall idol in a fishermen colony.



Owing to their gigantic size these Ganesha idols, ‘immersion’ of these idols will be conducted at the pandal itself.



This year the city will be having 1,100 pandals according to the norms and 2,500 more, set up without following of norms.

School kids distribute mud idols

The Interact Club 2014 of Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan school took up the initiative of distributing 3,000 eco-friendly Ganesh idols made of mud on Thursday as part of the ‘Save our Environment’ programme. The club members along with Rotary Club Visakha Port City took part in the making of clay idols to discourage usage of environmentally harmful idols made of plaster of Paris and other chemicals.



The club spread the message that using a mud idol instead of a coloured plaster of Paris one will not make any difference in worshipping the god but it will surely not have harmful impact on the environment. The mud idols were also distributed to the school children and staff of Zilla Parishad School, Chandrapalam by PLK Murthy, President, Rotary Club Visakha Port City and TSR Prasad, retired Additional Superintendent of Police. Director of the school Ch. Vasu Prakash also took part in the programme.



