BWSSB to give RWH park a new lease of life

Board ups the estimated cost, plans several new features

 It is now set to receive a new lease of life as the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has hiked its estimated cost six times from what was originally planned.

Unique features will also be incorporated in the park.

A recent board meeting of the BWSSB has now fixed Rs two crore as the revised estimate for the ‘Jayanagar Rainwater harvesting Theme Park,’ said a top BWSSB source.
“The cost estimate fixed last year was just Rs 32 lakhs,” he said. The process of finalising the new tenders is under way.

Tenders had been called for the same last year but no decision had been made on the bidders. This was because the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board wanted to ensure that the park would be a comprehensive one since it would be the first such undertaking in the country.

“Expert advice was sought and key recommendations made by reputed scientist Sivakumar of the Karnataka Vijnana Parishat were accepted. So, the park will now be remodelled along those lines,” the source added.  

Creating awareness

The park will come up on the originally planned space of one acre at 40th Cross, 7th Main in Jayanagar’s 5th Block. The objective of it was to create an awareness on RWH among the public by creating a demonstration and information centre.

The new aspects planned are a theatre, a live demonstration of recharging of borewells as well as recharging other sources of groundwater and a depiction of the reuse of water.

The theatre will screen educative films on RWH. “They will be of a duration of ten or twenty minutes and will get automatically repeated at regular intervals in English and Kannada,” the source said.

Demonstrations

A building will be constructed to collect rainwater, filter it and demonstrate its usage. The exhibit models to be installed were planned on a small scale earlier but they will be of a mammoth size now.  

Waterfalls, a lawn, a pathway and decorative plants, which were part of the original plan, have also been incorporated in the new plan. Solar lighting facility and a summer house with benches will also find place in the park.

A time frame for completion of the project has not been fixed, he added.