Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) will soon take up the task of dewatering Ambazari lake at the earliest as part of the effort to safeguard the lake and avoid recurrence of the flooding as witnessed in September 2023. However, it may prove to be a challenging task.
NMC has started flood preparedness by identifying trees that may damage the Ambazari Lake bund; measure width of Nag River and dewater the lake for deepening among other steps. The State Irrigation Department has been engaged to study 100 metres of Nag River basin starting from the overflow point.
At the same time, the Water Resources Department (WRD) has been tasked with conducting a detailed study as to what portion of Swami Vivekanand Memorial has to be removed or relocated. These two major decisions were taken in the first meeting of the High-Level Committee constituted as per the directions of the High Court to clear encroachments along Nag River which were causing flooding in areas including at the source — Ambazari Lake.
The meeting was held on January 10. All the members including the Chairperson Vijayalakshmi Bidari, Divisional Commissioner; Dr Abhijit Chaudhari, Municipal Commissioner and Member Secretary of the committee; Dr P K Pawar, Chief Engineer, WRD; Dr Vipin Itankar, District Collector; Hema Deshpande, Regional officer of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board; Pramod Gawande, President, Heritage Committee of NMC; and others attended the meeting.
The minutes of the meeting were placed before the High Court during a hearing held on Wednesday. As per the minutes of the meeting, NMC is to soon take up the task of dewatering Ambazari Lake. In the meeting, NMC was also asked to take care of removal of all the hindrances pointed out by the WRD before or during the execution of the works proposed in Phase2. The timeline of this will be conveyed by NMC in the next meeting of the High-level Committee scheduled on January 24.
However, media reports said that dewatering the huge lake is a challenging task. The downstream dewatering is easier than dewatering upstream. Ambazari Lake supplies water to Ordnance Factory Ambajhari and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area. Considering the expanse of the lake, dewatering may take at least three months. The complex process may extend into summer.
Ordnance Factory Ambajhari and MIDC area will have to make arrangements for water from other sources during the summer because the entire lake area may not get fresh water before monsoon. This can be a big challenge, said an officer, on the condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, another major part is the task given to WRD — to conduct detailed study of the Krazy Castle with respect to hydraulics, and Swami Vivekanand Memorial. The study has to be conducted considering all the changes being carried out now. The WRD has been asked to submit the report specifically on what portion of Swami Vivekanand Memorial structure will have to be removed or relocated, and the widening of the nullah in Krazy Castle for the smooth flow of water. Conducting study may not be a problem, but removal or relocation of a portion of Swami Vivekanand Memorial will require funds for finding relocation site and then beautifying it.
