The Hindu : Karnataka / Belgaum News : Lake revival project in muddy waters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 30, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Belgaum

Lake revival project in muddy waters

Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM: The ambitious "Integrated Development of Kotekere" (fort lake) work has come to a standstill because of rain.

The Karnataka Land Army Corporation could have completed the project had it started the work soon after it was given the contract on June 11 last year.

R. Dalwani, Additional Director in the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, visited the city and left for Gadag after inspecting the progress in Kotekere within a few hours.

She is scheduled to visit Bhisma Lake in Gadag.

On reaching Bangalore, she will review progress of the recently sanctioned schemes for Channapatna Lake in Hassan, Sharanabasaveshwar Lake in Gulbarga and Akkamahadevi Lake in Haveri.

Long-pending scheme

The beautification of Kotekere in the heart of the city has been a dream of the people of Belgaum. The first concrete step in this regard was taken in 2001 by the then Deputy Commissioner, Atul Kumar Tiwari, and a scheme was formulated.

All the eight works under the contract agreement, which were signed on June 11, 2004, must be completed in one year (excluding monsoon) by November 2005.

Under the contract, the work to be executed is removing silt and building embankment of lake - evacuating 51,900 cm. both dry and wet silt and embankment of the lake, strengthening of lake-rough stone revetment around the bund (inside), sewage diversion and construction of an outlet through Bellary Nala, two silt traps for rainwater, toilets, and construction of seven community toilets at the upstream near Gangwadi and Waddarwadi.

Community toilets

The construction of community toilets is likely to be delayed because the Belgaum City Corporation is yet to hand over land in spite of several letters from the Lake Development Authority.

The corporation officials have not attended any meeting convened by the authority.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Wednesday that the authority never took the district administration into confidence.

It invited tenders and the work was allotted to the Land Army without consulting the district administration.

When members of the public started blaming the district administration for the slow progress of work, the Deputy Commissioner, M. Maheshwar Rao (who has since been transferred), wrote to the authority following which the latter issued orders to appoint a district-level officer to monitor the progress.

In its letter of April 18, the authority agreed that there was no one to supervise the work.

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