The Hindu : Ulsoor Lake restoration to be over in two weeks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Ulsoor Lake restoration to be over in two weeks

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore April 11. The Ulsoor Lake restoration work is expected to be completed within two weeks, and the lake will be ready to receive inflows from pre-monsoon rains by April-end.

``Much of the work around the lake, including a new jogging track, will be ready by mid-May,'' says P. Shyama Raju of Shyamaraju and Co., contractors carrying out the restoration for the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP).

Work at Ulsoor Lake began in December-end, and it was estimated that it would take eight months to complete the project, which involves desilting and draining water, diversion of all sewers which were earlier leading into the lake, and beautification of the park and paths around the lake.

The pipeline built for diverting sewage towards Bellandur is being covered by earth and silt, and will become part of the jogging track. No sewers now lead into the lake, Mr. Raju says. To prevent silting in future, a sedimentation tank has been built on the Kensington Road end. Water will pass through the tanks, and sediment will be trapped before water flows into the lake.

Another innovation is the "immersion tank" at the Annaswamy Mudaliar Road end. The tank will measure 30 m. by 30 m. at ground level, and 10 m. by 10 m. at the bottom, with steps on all four sides. Ganesh idols and puja flowers can be immersed only here, and it can be easily cleaned after festivals.

``Desilting had to be completed before early rains, but the original dumping point — Narayanpura quarry pit — was not sufficient. The BMP has now assigned to us two more sites, the Hennur-Banaswadi quarry pit, and land belonging to Army Service Corps,'' Mr. Raju says. Though the distance is greater, it will save time.

The company mobilised high-tech equipment such as excavators, dumpers, tippers, and bulldozers. Articulated haulers of large capacity were imported from Singapore to speed up the work, and these could be used even on slush. "We used three times the machinery required by the original tender, and the imported haulers were used to build temporary roads to connect the islands in the lake,'' Mr. Raju says.

Since the silt removed from the lake was found to be more fertile than ordinary manure, the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) wanted to procure it.

The contractors volunteered to deliver it at their own cost at the campus.

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