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| Dal cleaning project overrunning deadline | | |
Agencies
New Delhi, Jun 15 : The Rupees 298.76 crore project for restoring the pristine beauty of the world famous Dal Lake in Srinagar was going to be delayed.
Though work on the project was going on, cleaning of the lake was beset with so many problems that the task would not be completed on its scheduled time--March next year, sources in the Ministry of Environment told a news gathering agency today.
The lake whose breathtaking beauty attracts tourists from the all over the world, covers an area of 18 sq km, and is divided by causeways into four basins, called Gagribal, Lokut Dal, Bod Dal and Nagin.
The project for cleaning it, started in September 2005, enjoys 100 per cent central funding in view of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, but it is to be executed by the state government.
The greatest hurdle in the cleaning of the river was to shift and rehabilitate about 50,000 people of 10,000 families, while so far only 1,200 families had been shifted, an official said.
''These people both live in and live on the lake, so while moving them from the lake area it has to be seen that they have to be settled at a place which is not away from it, so that they could earn their bread and butter,'' he said.
The people have been encroaching the lake over decades with the result that the waterbody had shrunk to almost half of its area today. The state government has identified some land for their settlement. The lake land has been encroached for farming and setting up small crafts factories and hotel buildings also.
The cost of shifting and resettling the 50,000 people runs into crores of rupees, and the state government had applied to the Planning Commission for special central assistance over and above the sanctioned cost of the project.
The solid and liquid waste and sewage water from thousands of houseboats had so far been going into the lake, but now work would be taken up under the project to connect the houseboats to sewer line.
This sewage spewing into the lake was feeding weeds and depriving the lake and its aquatic life of oxygen.
As many as six sewage treatment plants (STPs) of 36 million litre per day capacity have been sanctioned under the project, and three of them have been constructed.
Another major cause of degradation of the lake was the silt coming from the mountains, carried by the Telbal nullah. To tackle the problem a basin has been constructed to receive the silt in the mountain water before it falls in the lake.
The de-weeding work was also going on under the Jammu and Kashmir Lakes and Waterways Authority.
In addition to the enormity of the problem, the shortage of staff, especially technical, was a major hurdle.
As many as 62 lakes all over the country have been identified for conservation under National Lake Conservation Plan for conservation of degraded lakes.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests also implement National River Conservation Plan for abatement of pollution in the identified polluted stretches of rivers in the country.
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