Metro water to fill Namma lakes

Rain, train...

If all goes well as per the plans of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), dying lakes in the City will get a fresh lease of life soon.

Kengeri Lake on Mysore road and Veerasandra Lake on Hosur Road will be the first beneficiaries.

N Sivasailam, managing director, BMRCL, on Saturday said as part of the rain water harvesting system being adopted for the Namma Metro corridors under Phase II, the rain water collected would be fed to selected lakes in the city. “We have found that Metro corridors account for collection of large quantity of rain water. Under Phase I, we are utilising it for recharging underground water through percolation pits. However, under Phase II, rain water collected will be fed to selected lakes along the corridors to assist in their rejuvenation,” he said.

Speaking at an interaction held at the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), Sivasailam said the BMRCL will carry out the lake rejuvenation drive as part of their corporate social responsibility activity. “The government has given approval for two lakes, Kengeri Lake along Mysore Road and Veerasandra Lake along Hosur Road, to be taken up under this project. We are consulting experts for execution formalities. Water collected on corridors will be transported to lakes. Depending on the experience, the project will be gradually extended to other lakes along the metro corridors,” he said.

When questioned about the total quantity of water that could be collected on metro corridor under Phase I, Sivasailam said three days of rain on the corridor, as experienced recently, can fill the space of Ulsoor Lake easily. “If we keep 42 km as the total length of the corridor, we need to multiply it with the width of corridor—10 mts—to get the collection capacity,” he said. A senior official of the BMRCL said that since the Phase II of Namma Metro is 72 km in length, the water harvesting capacity would be more.