The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation will hold a sacred waste collection drive at 12 temples across Hyderabad on November 14, giving residents designated locations to deposit damaged idols, religious photographs, puja frames, calendars and old religious books.
The drive is part of Project Udvasana, a GHMC initiative that links religious practices with responsible waste handling. Residents can deposit the items between 8 am and 11 am at the identified temples, according to a senior GHMC official quoted by Telangana Today.
The collection points will be spread across the Shamshabad, Charminar, Rajendra Nagar, Golconda, Secunderabad and Khairatabad municipal zones. The move provides a formal collection channel for sacred items that residents may otherwise find difficult to discard through routine household waste arrangements.
The designated locations include Venu Gopala Swamy Temple in Badangpet; Mamidipally Hanuman Temple in Jalpally; and Sri Venkateswara Swamy Devasthanam at Moosarambagh. Another Sri Venkateswara Swamy Devasthanam, at Tirumala Hills in Asmangadh, will also serve as a collection point.
The list further includes Sri Devi Devalayam in Chandrayangutta; Sri Spathagiri Venkateswara Swamy Devalayam in Hyderguda, Attapur; and Sri Vishwanjaneya Bhakta Samajam Temple in Karwan. Residents in the Golconda area can use Seetaramanjaneeya Swamy Devalayam, Ramalayam, covering Shaikpet and O U Colony.
Other collection points are TTD in Himayat Nagar under Khairatabad; Sri Sai Baba Temple in Kalyan Nagar, Yousufguda; Shree Ramalayam in Jawahar Nagar, Kawadiguda; and Mahashivalayam Temple in Kacheguda, Amberpet.
The materials listed for collection include cracked clay or metal idols, damaged puja frames, religious photographs, old religious calendars and religious books. The initiative is intended to create a designated route for these items through temple-based collection points rather than leaving residents to manage their disposal independently.
Project Udvasana is being implemented through GHMC’s municipal zones and circles, with each collection point linked to a specific local area. The November 14 drive is the next phase of the initiative, and the civic body has released the identified temple locations for residents seeking to deposit sacred waste.
Residents using the service will need to visit the designated temples during the three-hour collection window. GHMC’s listed locations cover several parts of the city, including southern, central, western and northern areas, with the drive operating simultaneously at the 12 identified temples on November 14.
