₹50-crore push to restore 15 lakes in city

As shrink­ing water levels and deteri­or­at­ing lake health become an increas­ingly famil­iar sight across parts of Bengaluru, the North City Cor­por­a­tion has drawn up a ₹50-crore plan to restore 15 lakes through sewage diver­sion, dredging and eco­lo­gical res­tor­a­tion works. Among the lakes identi”ed, Linga­ra­japuram and Banas­awadi lakes are set to undergo com­plete regen­er­a­tion. Both lakes, o¬cials said, have been ”lled up to ground level over the years and no longer retain the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of a water body. The pro­posal includes restor­ing their inlets and out­lets and recre­at­ing the lakes from scratch.

The cor­por­a­tion has also identi”ed a second cat­egory of “under­developed” lakes that still retain the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of a lake but

su§er from issues such as blocked inlets and out­lets, sewage inˆows and poor eco­lo­gical health. The cor­por­a­tion will turn under­developed lakes into developed water bod­ies.

O¬cials said sewage diver­sion is one of the key com­pon­ents of the project. Sewage diver­sion drains have been pro­posed at Ava­la­halli, Agra­hara, Pala­na­halli, Thirume­na­halli and Chokka­na­halli lakes to

pre­vent untreated wastewa­ter from enter­ing the water bod­ies.

North City Cor­por­a­tion Com­mis­sioner Pom­mala Sunil Kumar said that years of silt accu­mu­la­tion have reduced their water-hold­ing capa­city, and remov­ing the silt is expec­ted to increase stor­age capa­city.

At Nagawara lake, the pro­posal seeks to take up the remain­ing devel­op­ment works after the ”rst phase. The works include walk­ways, bridges and kalyanis for idol immer­sion dur­ing fest­ivals, while at Singapura lake, spread over about 66 acres, o¬cials said devel­op­ment has already been com­pleted over nearly 40 acres. The remain­ing works have been estim­ated at ₹6 crore.

Sev­eral lakes included in the pro­posal, includ­ing Ava­la­halli lake, have been ear­marked for res­tor­a­tion in the past. While work had begun on some occa­sions, it was later hal­ted before com­ple­tion.

Mon­it­or­ing sys­tems

The cor­por­a­tion has also pro­posed installing real­time water qual­ity and water level mon­it­or­ing sys­tems across lakes under its jur­is­dic­tion.

O¬cials said the sys­tem would gen­er­ate alerts if water qual­ity deteri­or­ates or water levels approach ˆood levels, to allow o¬cials to mon­itor pol­lu­tion and reg­u­late water dis­charge down­stream when required.

The pro­posal also includes trash bar­ri­ers, ˆoat­ing wet­lands and aer­at­ors at selec­ted lakes as part of meas­ures to improve water qual­ity.

“Float­ing wet­lands and trash bins are placed as an eco-friendly sys­tem to clean pol­luted water and man­age waste. If placed together, they rep­lic­ate a nat­ural eco­sys­tem to help restore water­ways without rely­ing entirely on harsh chem­ical treat­ments,” the Com­mis­sioner added.

Pub­lic amen­it­ies have also been pro­posed at some lakes. Ven­katesh­pura lake has been ear­marked for a yoga plat­form, gazebo, open-air gym, chil­dren’s play area and addi­tional benches, while Banas­awadi lake is pro­posed to receive bound­ary fen­cing and allied works.

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