BDA commissioner visits Bellandur lake, says restoration work too slow

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) commissioner Rakesh Singh on Thursday admitted that the work on restoration and rejuvenation of the polluted Bellandur lake is going on at a slow pace.

During his visit to the lake to inspect the weeding work, Singh said that from the point of one organisation it looks as if a lot of work has been done, but in reality, there is hardly any progress.

“Clearing weeds will take time. Tenders for aeration opened on Thursday. With this, the work on rejuvenating the lake will be faster. Fencing of the lake is also going on,” he said.

He directed officials to speed up weeding. “There is a need to speed up the work. A meeting will be held with the chief secretary to review the progress and decide how to speed up things,” he said.

Clearing weeds around the lake bed, using earth movers, had started last week. But, weeding from inside the lake using harvesters started only on Wednesday.

Singh said that periodic inspections were required as too many stakeholders are involved in reviving the Bellandur lake. This helps avoid confusion. “We have also set up a round the clock BDA office near the Bellandur lake. Police assistance has been taken to keep miscreants at a bay. A police team along with the BDA police has also been deployed to ensure that there is no more dumping in the catchment area of the Varthur lake,” he said.

BDA officials are also said to be verifying the ownership of the land around the catchment area of Bellandur and Varthur lakes.

Compost plant
Weeds cleared from the Bellandur lake have been dumped around the lake bed and on road side as the BDA and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials are yet to decide on what needed to be done with the piled up weed.

Meanwhile, a few companies are coming forward to collect weeds for composting. “I will be meeting the representatives of various companies who have approached the BDA to take the weeds removed from the Bellandur lake for making agricultural manure. The plan is to set up a compost plant near the lake bed itself as transporting it to other locations will not only be expensive but also a tedious exercise,” Singh said.

Now, the piled up weed has turned into fodder for sheep and goats.
DH News Service