BENGALURU: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is unlikely to meet its October end deadline of desilting Varthur and Bellandur lakes due to incessant rain lashing the city. According to sources, only 41 per cent of silt from Bellandur lake has been cleared so far. As for Varthur lake, officials say over 70 per cent of desilting has been completed.
Of ficials say the BDA’s planned projects of wetland improvement, laying a walking track and island development at the two lakes will be delayed as rain is affecting the movement of trucks being used to clear the silt. According to senior officials from BDA Lakes Division, there is an estimated quantity of 3233643 cubic meters of silt accumulated in Bellandur lake and for from since a year, the BDA has been able to clear only 1326050 cubic meters upto till May 7, 2022, which is only 41 per cent of the total silt.
Similarly at Varthur lake, out of 1510305 cubic meters of silt, 1111880 cubic meters of silt has been cleared, which is 73.61 per cent. Aravind, Assistant Executive Engineer, BDA, said, “We have deployed over 100 trucks at these two places to transport silt out of the lakes. Silt weighbridges have been installed at the two sites and GPS instruments have been fixed on all tippers in order to measure the actual travel distance. Transparency in the billing process is also being maintained .”
While the total area of Bellandur lake is spread across 916 acres and the storage capacity is 8,400 litres, Varthur lake measures 439 acres with a storage capacity of 4,025 million litres. According to BDA officials, heavy rain since May turned the silt into slush making it difficult for workers to load the waste into trucks. Also, water stagnation is making is difficult for trucks to ply. “We had set a target to complete the desilting work from Bellandur to Varthur by October end. Only after the rain stops and the silt becomes dry, we can take up the development work,” said Aravind.