Hyderabad: The irrigation department’s proposal to dig up the Tank Bund to install sluice gates is just the latest in a series of plans that the many agencies that oversee Hussainsagar and its environs have come up. Most of these plans are drafted without due consultation with each other.
The HMDA looks after the maintenance and developmental works in and around Hussainsagar along with the GHMC, Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited and the Metro Water and Sewerage Board, while the water in the lake belongs to the irrigation department. Only the Pollution Control Board, which has to monitor the water quality by checking the sewerage treatment plants, is sitting idle.
Officials from these agencies hold fortnightly convergence meetings but apparently do not exchange proposals or coordinate with each other. The municipal administration and urban development department wants the developmental activities overseen by a single agency.
While the HMDA is trying to improve water quality through bio-remediation process, the sewerage board has been releasing semi-treated water into the lake through its 20 MLD sewerage treatment plant near Khairatabad. Untreated sewage enters the lake from a channel on NTR Marg.
The irrigation department, which proposes to demolish a section of Tank Bund to construct 10 sluices, and the HRDCL, which maintains the Tank Bund road, wants a walkway and high quality road.
This apart, the irrigation and electricity departments damage the roads and walkways around the lake — managed by the HMDA (from People's Plaza to Sanjeevaiah Park), Tank Bund (HRDCL) and GHMC (Secretariat to NTR Marg) — at least twice every year to set up cranes and temporary substations during the Ganesh immersion and Dasara.
Of the proposals for the lake, there have been many. In June 2017, the HMDA had proposed to construct a Rs 8 crore 10-acre theme park between Jalavihar and PV Ghat. A ropeway was planned from Sailing Club to Lumbini Park. It also planned an underwater aquarium. Two islands were to be developed in the lake between Sanjeevaiah Park and Jalavihar with sediment dredged up from the lake. Mounds of sediment were deposited on the lake side but nothing happened due to the lack of coordination.
A senior MA&UD official said there was an immediate requirement to create an independent organisation to look after the development and beautification activities in and around Hussainsagar. He said the agency should be authorised to improve water quality, develop the environs and build roads and work with the municipal administration and urban development department. Funds could be allocated from the state Budget, he added.
