HYDERABAD: Following the Covid-19 protocols, the historic city of Hyderabad is all set to celebrate the annual ‘Bonalu’ festival, a thanksgiving ritual to Goddess Mahakali for fulfilling devotees’ vows. The month-long Bonalu celebrations will start by offering the first golden ‘bonam’ to the goddess at the Jagadamba temple in historic Golconda Fort at 12 noon.

While the festival starts at the Golconda fort on Sunday, the other parts of the city celebrate in the coming Sundays till the end of the ‘Aashadam’ month.

As the usual practice, the first ‘ bonam’ will be offered on behalf of the state government. All arrangements have been taken care of by the government officials, including the waterworks, electricity department, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), and the police.

The people of Telangana are excited about this year’s festival as the government had to stall the celebrations and it was kept to a very minimal affair last year due to the Corona pandemic.

Temple authorities are expecting a large crowd this time, as women could not fulfill their offerings to the goddesses last year. As per rules, devotees are expected to wear the mask at Golconda or they will not be allowed inside the premises, officials said.

However, the main ‘Bonalu’ festival will be celebrated on August 1 at Mahankali Temple, Lal Darwaza. The temple holds celebrations for eleven days, starting from July 23. The chairman of the temple committee said that all preparations were made to hold the festival grandly.

“This year, we made an additional arrangement of sanitization of the temple and its surroundings. The temple committee, with the help of GHMC, deployed a team to ensure that devotees maintain social distancing in the queues,” he added.