Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 2: Governor N N Vohra today held detailed discussion on various challenges facing the Dal Lake and took several important decisions.
In the meeting, Vice Admiral (retd) S K Jha, former Chief Hydrographer and Rajesh Tripathi, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Dredging Corporation of India presented their assessments.
This meeting was attended by B.B. Vyas, Advisor to Governor; B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; K.B. Agarwal, Financial Commissioner, Housing and Urban Development Department; Umang Narula, Principal Secretary to Governor and Dr A.H. Shah, VC, LAWDA.
It is pertinent to mention here that in the course of earlier discussions held by Governor with officers of all the departments concerned with the preservation of the Dal Lake it was recognised that despite recurring efforts having been made during the past over two decades to maintain the Dal as an attractive and clean water body, the necessity of securing the advice of external experts had not been vigorously pursued.
In this context, Governor had spoken to Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of Indian Navy, to help in identifying experts who could undertake a benchmark survey of the Dal Lake and, later, also of the Wular Lake. Side by side, he had asked Advisor B.B. Vyas to get in touch with Rajesh Tripathi, Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI).
Navy Chief had informed Governor that Vice Admiral (Retd) S.K. Jha, former Chief Hydrographer, could assist the Jammu and Kashmir Government in formulating an approach for dealing with the problems facing the Dal Lake. At the request of the State Government Vice Admiral S.K. Jha and Rajesh Tripathi, CMD of DCI, visited Srinagar on 30th – 31st July and undertook separate surveys and assessments to identify the problems facing the Dal Lake.
From the assessment made by CMD of DCI, it was learnt that the size of Dal has shrunk from its original area of 22 sq kms to about 10 sq kms; that the water quality of Dal has deteriorated due to intense pollution caused by untreated sewage and solid wastes that flow into the Lake; encroachments of water channels and clogging has diminished the circulation and inflows into the Lake, leading to extensive weed growth of Jal Khumbh (water hyacinth) which has emerged as a health hazard; due to siltation, encroachment etc the depth of the Lake has reduced at many places and its total capacity has gone down to 40%; the continuing night soil discharge from the 8/900 House Boats is causing extreme pollution.
Consequent to detailed discussions on the various challenges facing the Dal Lake it was decided to request Chief of the Indian Navy for help in a comprehensive Bathymetric Survey of Dal-Nageen Lake being carried out to establish a benchmark data base for deciding the extent of dredging etc to be carried out in the various parts of the Dal Lake; to hold immediate discussions for appointment of Dredging Corporation of India as the nodal Consulting Agency to formulate to-date DPR which focuses, interalia, on dredging identified areas of the land masses in the interiors of the Dal Lake; to initiate immediate action for examining the possibility of installing holding tanks and bio-digestors to ensure against the discharge of sewage by the 800-900 house boats into the Lake.
The Financial Commissioner Housing and Urban Development Department was directed to take immediate action; VC, LAWDA, shall commence immediate finalization of a project proposal for installing additional Aerators in the Dal Lake for increasing aeration activity and raising the dissolved oxygen levels in the stagnant pockets.
Governor directed Chief Secretary to closely monitor further progress and hoped that the infusion of valuable expertise will enable the required preservation measures being taken, under a well considered roadmap, for achieving a positive outcome within a tight time frame.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
