Alappuzha: The people in Kuttanad have reason to cheer as the state budget has proposed a Kuttanad lake environment revival project, which is under preparation to seek World Bank assistance. The budget has promised to complete the drinking water scheme on a war footing to keep the Thaneermukkam bund open throughout the year. The project is ready for submission to KIIFB. It is planned to stop the tourism- related pollution and the flow of sewage from towns to the lake. The third phase construction of the bund has come to standstill due to the delay in releasing the central funds. Recently, the contractors had kept the works pending as they didn’t receive Rs 20 crore for the completed work.
With the completion of the third phase costing Rs 255 crore, the bund will be the largest river bridge in the state and it will stop the annual ingress of brackish water giving a thrust to faming in Kuttanad. The irrigation department has claimed that it can complete the work with Rs 220 crore. As per the DPR, the cost should be shared equally (50:50) by the state and union governments. However, the centre is yet to release the funds. So far the state government has spent Rs 170 crore hoping that the union government will reimburse the amount.
According to an engineer with the irrigation department, there are 28 pillars in the third phase with 425-metre length each. There is also a boat lock for the movement of boats under the bund with 28 shutters, and 14 shutters have already been erected. The third phase construction was kicked off on July 1, 2016, 39 years after the bund was commissioned. A 1450- metre- long bund was constructed across Vembanad lake in 1975 to prevent the flow of saline water to Kuttanad from Arabian sea during summer. The irrigation department had installed shutters only at a length of 900 metres of the bund.
