BENGALURU: In the midst of October, when the monsoon got over, lake activists pointed out that the waste weir in the south-east part of Varthur lake was breached. Though the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) maintains that the breach happened because of the heavy monsoon, the activists suspect that excessive hydro pressure caused by minor irrigation works led to the breach.
“The condition is still the same. Instead of constructing the waste weir, the BDA has put sandbags, but it will not solve the problem, said Jagadish Reddy Nagappa of the Citizen Lake Warden Committee.
In the north-east part of the lake, the BBMP has taken up with the rotary road construction and road widening projects. The engineers are trying to divert the water to carry out the construction activities. However, due to the construction, the northeast waste weir is blocked. “The rotary road construction will take six months to complete after which the BBMP will take up the road widening project from north-east of Varthur lake to Bellandur,” said Renganatham, a junior engineer with the BBMP.
The member engineer of the BDA, P.N. Naik said the weir was breached due to excessive rain and they have made temporary arrangements to deal with the situation.
“We have called for the tender to construct the waste weir and once the process gets over, the project will take off,” he said.
In order to construct the rotary road, the BBMP has blocked the flow of the water which Mr Naik said has been removed on Thursday as the flow of water cannot be restricted. Reddy fears that if the water drains due to the broken waste weir, it will severely impact the farmers as they will be deprived of water for irrigation.
According to the sources, the entire BBMP project cost is estimated at Rs 40 crore.
