Ranchi water bodies to get monthly care.

Source – telegraphindia.com

The water bodies of Ranchi will be cleaned every month, the civic body has decided.

Taking lessons from the difficulties in cleaning water bodies during festivals, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has issued a directive for monthly cleaning instead of the existing norm of cleaning the more than 40 water bodies in the 53 wards only during Durga Puja and Chhath, once a year.

“We have issued directive to all the ward supervisors to ensure that cleaning of the water bodies undertaken prior to Chhath earlier this month is maintained,” said RMC commissioner Manoj Kumar. “The ward supervisor has to arrange for cleaning of water hyacinth and garbage on a regular basis every month and submit report. The councillor (elected representative) of the specific ward has also been requested to monitor that the cleaning is done satisfactorily and any issues should be raised promptly with the RMC’s health officials.”

The RMC had to face difficulties in cleaning water hyacinth and garbage from the major water bodies prior to Chhath this year due to rains and after a lot of efforts the lakes were cleared of garbage and the green growth.

As per the directive issued on Thursday, ward supervisors would take help of safai (cleanliness) workers in cleaning the water bodies every month and if the cleaning requires more effort they can repeat the cleaning every fortnight.

“The decision was taken after difficulties in pooling in huge number of workers and tractors to clean the water bodies of puja paraphernalia, garbage and water hyacinth from the water bodies with very few days left for the festivals and we had to literally work day and night. Now regular cleaning will make our task easier and we have to clean only puja paraphernalia after festivals,” an RMC official said.

Some of the major water bodies include Bada Talab, Tetartoli pond, Jail Talab, Chadhri pond, Button Talab, Hatania Talab, Kanke Lake etc.

The RMC is also planning to set up specific points near the lakes where puja paraphernalia would be thrown instead of being chucked in the lake.

“This will be known as visarjan kund near the water bodies. It would be specially barricaded points near the water bodies where devotees can drop puja paraphernalia before immersion of idols in the lake. We will be putting up notice boards informing people about these specific spots so that the entire water bodies are not polluted,” said RMC health officer Kiran Kumari.

The civic body also plans to hire a private agency for mechanised dredging and cleaning of water hyacinth from big water bodies.

“We will be hiring a private agency for clearing water hyacinth and dredging of the big water bodies as it is very difficult to remove water hyacinth from the water bodies manually. The selection process will take place after the assembly polls,” said RMC CEO Manoj Kumar.

Ranchi Lake beautification likely to be complete this year

Source: dailypioneer.com

The beautification work of Ranchi Lake, popularly known as ‘Bada Talab’, which has been underway for a long time now is being accelerated, said Deputy Mayor of Ranchi, Sanjeev Vijaywargiya.

The proposal to complete the work was scheduled pre-monsoon, by March end of this year, yet no substantial on site development can be witnessed. “We have come up with a budget of Rs 3.5 crores for the project and aim to develop the lake with advance technology, Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) for all the sewage and drain water that is discharged in the lack causing water contamination,” said the Deputy Mayor.

A request for proposal will be floated within this week said Vijaywargiya. The work for the STP will start from September and would take about six to eight months for its completion. Water purification and development of a horticulture park around it also included in the project. The park along with the bronze statue of Vivekananda that was established earlier this year will be handled by the Tourism Department of the State.

The plan to undertake the beautification project for the lake has been on the RMC’s checklist from 2016. With intervention from the CM’s side this year the initial plan was to complete the work before monsoon so as to ensure recharging of ground water and rain water harvesting. “We have already decided to cut 10 per cent of the contractor’s payment due to the delay and are committed to ensure the project proves to be good quality work in due time,” told Vijaywargiya.

“We are looking forward to the renewal and beautification of the lake, we wish to see the iconic lake of Ranchi develop as a tourist spot. It is also important from the perspective of water conservation as we are going through major water crisis in the leading cities of our country,” said Manoj Kumar, a resident near the lake.

The other projects in process for the Ranchi Municipal Corporation includes road expansion of about 10-15 feet from Rotary Park to Laxmi Narayan Mandir in Upper Bazaar, pathway – eatery joint and park development around the Yoga centre present there, collaboration with Maheshwari Samiti in the Annapurna Yojna to provide food Rs.10 per plate with parking and seating space.