UT finalises proposal for installing STP

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 19

A proposal for the installation of a sewage treatment plant (STP) on public private partnership mode has been finalised and approved by the UT Administration. The proposal was prepared for supplying additional water to fill up Sukhna Lake for maintaining its water level.

Information to this effect was provided to Chandigarh Senior Standing Counsel Survir Sehgal by a superintending engineer for onward transmission to the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the hearing of the “Save Sukhna case”.

The information came less than a month after amicus curiae or the friend of the Court Tanu Bedi referred to a news item published in the Chandigarh Tribune on Chandigarh Administration’s move to have a sewage plant at Kishangarh village to supply treated water to Sukhna Lake also.

Bedi prayed that the same may not be allowed to be mixed with the lake water until and unless permission from the court was obtained. Taking a note of her submission, the High Court had clarified that the Chandigarh Administration may continue with the process of examining the feasibility of mixing treated sewage water with the lake. But the Chandigarh Administration would take the court into confidence before pumping sewage treated water into the lake as contemplated.

The detailed parameters of the treated sewage have been finalised by committee of five officers, including one from the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee. The request for the proposal for the installation of a sewage treatment plant of 2.00 MLD capacity has been invited by the Engineering Department, it was added.

The rain-fed lake at the foothills of the Himalayas was created way back in 1958 by damming the Sukhna Choe, a seasonal stream coming down from the Shivalik Hills.

The High Court, in its order dated March 14, 2011, had also issued directions for restoring the lake and its former glory.

The Division Bench of the High Court in May, 2012, had directed Punjab and Haryana, along with the Chandigarh Administration, to not just stop construction activity in the lake’s catchment area, but also to demolish without notice any construction being carried out against the High Court mandate.

Save Sukhna case

Information to this effect was provided to Chandigarh Senior Standing Counsel Survir Sehgal by a superintending engineer for onward transmission to the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the hearing of the “Save Sukhna case”.