The de-weeding of the historic Bindusagar lake has started in the wake of the Bhubaneswar Art Trail (BAT), coinciding with the Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup as the 1.3 km trail of art related activities are likely to attract huge tourist footfalls between November 18 and December 18.
The Division II of the Engineering Section of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken up the cleaning of the historic lake, which is built around 7-8th Century AD and is with an area of about 8.9 hectares or 21.9 acres. It is believed that a dip in the tank before entering into the temple complexes nearby is auspicious and associated with religious sentiments of thousands of devotees, who come on special occasions.
BMC Executive Engineer (Division II) Asim Mishra said the de-weeding work will continue for a fortnight. Now daily 50 workers would be engaged by the agency with adequate boats to clean the weeds from the lake. Later the cleaned weeds would be lifted by tractors to dumping sites. The civic body would invest around Rs 6 lakh for the cleaning of the lake.
On the other hand, the PMR, a private agency engaged by the BMC to clean and lift municipal solid waste (MWS) from the Old Town area, has intensified its work of cleaning the surrounding areas of the holy water body.