HYDERABAD: Soon tourists and residents of the city will be deprived of boating activities on Hussainsagar lake thanks to the steady dewatering of the lake.
If the lake’s water-level falls by another three feet then boating activities on the lake will be reduced drastically from next month.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), with the assistance of different government agencies, has recently opened about six sluices on the Tank Bund Road near Mariott Hotel to let out more water along the Hussainsagar surplus drain. Due to deepening and widening of the sluices, water levels have decreased by 5 to 6 feet in the last one month.
Another three feet decrease in water level will impact the Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) as operating the four mechanised boats and two cruisers will become tough. Finding a proper level to dock or moor the boats at the shore is becoming difficult with each passing day.
Due to depleting water levels, it has become difficult to ferry people from the jetties into the mechanised boats as their height has risen due to fall in the water levels. “If the water levels plummet by another three feet or more, our full-fledged activities will be drastically reduced and it will become difficult to run the four mechanised boats and two cruisers (Khairunnissa or Bhagmati). But there will be no problem for small-sized speed boats,” TSTDC officials told Express.
“From the last one month our revenues have fallen down by 25 per cent as we did not operate the boats to their full capacity,” another TSTDC official said.
They said there is a chance of shifting the boating activities to other districts. The mechanised boats might be shifted to other tourist spots in Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar or Nagarjunsagar etc as they cannot be kept idle.
Hussainsagar, which is considered one of Asia’s largest man-made lakes, has always been a major source of recreation to the tourists and residents alike from 30 years.
The boats are a major part of the revenue and dewatering exercise will hit the revenue hard, officials said. The demand for a boat ride in Hussainsagar is mainly from corporates, which take their employees for dinner on the boats on special occasions.