MCB plans to make walking area along DAV pond

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 30

The Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) has made a proposal for the beautification of the DAV pond and increasing its capacity.

It has also been proposed to set up a gym and construct basketball and volleyball courts along the pond.

In the proposal, it is stated that there is a pond behind DAV College on shamlat land.

The MCB, through Sewerage Board, has installed motors at the corners of the pond.

By doing so, rainwater is flown here during the rainy season. Later, it is pumped out through sewerage to provide relief to the residents living in nearby colonies such as Aggarwal Colony, Bhatti road, Basant Vihar and Bibiwala road.

It is also stated that for the past few years, residents living nearby and the DAV College management are trying to encroach it by putting sand into the pond, which has even decreased its capacity.

Senior officials visited the site and took stock of the situation after which they instructed to make a proposal to increase its capacity and construct walking area here.

The MCB had prepared a rough cost estimate report in which it has stated that Rs 4.59 crore would have to be spent on this project.

This item has already been approved by the general house of the MCB in the meeting held on December 13, 2016.

In the earlier proposal, the lower portion of the pond was stated to be kacha, but in the new proposal, the MCB has stated the whole of the pond would be made concrete.

In the new proposal, the cost of the project has been hiked from Rs 4.59 crore to Rs 5.80 crore.

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath said, “We have made a proposal as increasing the capacity of the ponds is badly needed if we want to resolve the waterlogging problem in the city.”

Encroachment of ponds is common in the city. Earlier, the rainwater was made to flow into the ponds and later released in the sullage carrier, but with its capacity shrinking, the rainwater is also channelised into the sullage carrier, which led to breaches many times in the past two years.

Experts have also suggested that to dispose of rainwater, the only way is to increase the capacity of the ponds.

Earlier during the year, a probe panel of councillors was constituted on the encroachments on the ponds but the panel was dissolved without bringing any change at the ground level.