Anyone who visits the Osmansagar Lake or passes by the route going towards Shankarpalli will notice that a small part of the stretch near Khanapur, where the road is being widened, is close to the nearly 100-year-old lakebed.
The part of the road being laid is a few hundred metres away from Osmansagar’s lakebed . The spot is in between the lake and Miyankhangadda. “Work started here about a year ago. We were told that the road is being widened as traffic has increased,” said Sagar, who runs a pan shop at Miyankhangadda.
While activists from Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL) have claimed that the R&B Department is encoraching into the lake’s Full Tank level, officials denied it. “In fact, we are going to strengthen the lake’s buffer zone with a bund. We are not laying a new road, but are widening the existing one as traffic towards Shankarpalli has increased,” said Ravindra Rao, who is in-charge of the roads division in the R&B Department.
Mr. Rao stated that his department would also build a retaining wall on the road to further ensure that there are no encroachments there in the future. “What is being said is wrong. Whoever is objecting should protest against all the encroachments that have come up around the lake in the last 10 to 15 years,” he added.
