Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has designed an ambitious plan to drain the highly polluted Hussainsagar and pump in clean water, in an attempt to restore it back to its original glory.
Rao has asked Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to start pumping out water from the lake by the month end. According to his plans, the one TMC of water must be pumped out to let the lake dry in summer and then remove 35 to 40 lakh metric tonne of silt made of immersed Ganesh idols and chemical effluents.
Built in 1562, Hussainsagar was emptied for the first time a century ago. GHMC sources said Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, irrigation department and GHMC will be involved in the draining process
About six to seven 1800 HP heavy motors will be used to drain 400 cusecs of water a day. “This will take at least a month to complete,” a senior official said.
Both the sewerage treatment plants (STPs) will be blocked during the exercise to prevent treated and untreated water from entering the lake from Picket, Banjara, Balkapur and Kukatpally Nala.
The Nala will be diverted at a cost of Rs 53 crore through a dedicated four kilometre long pipeline. Digging out 5 million cubic meters of silt from the 5.7 square kilometres lake bed and transporting it outside the city is likely to cost Rs 100 crore to the Telangana government.
Authorities will also have to fix the tank to the full tank level (FTL) to identify encroachments. The FTL as per the 1975 Topo Sheets of Survey of India is 513.14 metres.