Work on revival of Badkhal Lake begins

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, April 26

The process of reviving the dried-up Badkhal Lake here has begun. The state government has handed over the work of refilling the lake to the Faridabad Smart City Limited (FSSL), the company looking after the Smart City project here. The Rs 67-crore project is likely to be completed within two years.

Sources said the earlier proposal of refilling the lake with irrigation water was dropped after a study found it unfeasible. Later, the authorities decided to fill the lake with the help of a sewage-treatment plant (STP) and it would be done by the FSSL and not the Irrigation Department.

“We will set up an STP in Sector 21 and its water will be used in filling the lake,” said Anand Mohan Sharan, Chairman, FSSL. The daily discharge of the STP is expected between 10 and 15 MLD. He said the work on DPR has started and the tender allotment process would be over in next two months.

He said the revival project would not only include water refilling, but also the development of the lake front. The water body would regain its original shape within a period of 18 to 24 months.

Spread over 40 acres, the lake had gone dry almost two decades back mainly due to illegal mining and operation of private water bottling plants in its vicinity. Though several meetings took place regarding revival of the lake that was first taken up in 2015, the main problem had been a permanent source of water as it required a continuous inflow of thousands of gallon round the year, said an official. A committee found that the STP option was the most viable, he added.

Seeking a blanket ban on illegal mining in the sensitive zone of Badkhal and Surajkund, Varun Sheokand, an RTI activist, said the lake revival project may fail if tough measures were not taken to protect the ecology of the region.