KOLKATA: In a bid to find an alternate way to clean city ponds without having to make massive expenditures in time-consuming processes like dredging, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), on Monday, held a meeting with members of a private agency which is offering a new technique to clean up these water bodies at low cost and at less time.
KMC keeps getting several requests for cleaning up ponds that often get covered in algae blooms. Recently, a resident of Vivekananda College Road in ward 124 requested the Mayor for cleaning the local pond by the KMC.
The member Mayor-in-Council (MMIC) of the environment department, Swapan Samaddar said that a private agency has approached the KMC to offer a demonstration of the latest technique through which ponds can be easily cleaned without having to spend crores on dredging.
Sources in the department said that there are certain safe chemicals which can be used to maintain the water quality of ponds and clean algal blooms without having to spend much of the resources.
The technique consumes much less time and money than traditional methods. Swapan Samaddar said: “If the demonstration of the technique appeals to us, then we will soon float
tenders to appoint agencies to carry out the cleaning of the water bodies using this technique. This will cost us way less than what it would have cost us in carrying out dredging. Once approved, this technique will also be used to clean the Bikramgarh Jheel.”
To restore the Bikramgarh Jheel, which has already fallen victim to encroachment, the KMC recently had to ask for Rs 9 crore from the state government for dredging.
Studies by Jadavpur University revealed that dredging is the only way to begin the restoration of the jheel due to heavy silt deposition there. “Without desilting, no other initiatives such as pisciculture can be taken up at this jheel,” said a civic
body official.