Hussain Sagar, the picturesque but the highly polluted historic lake in the heart of Hyderabad city can hope to breath easy in the days to come.
State’s Minister for urban development K Taraka Rama Rao on Tuesday formally launched the cleaning of the lake by pressing in to service a state of the art amphibious hydraulic excavator imported from Malaysia to remove the silt from the lake.
The equipment will also remove the garbage and vegetation from the lake waters helping in the cleaning of the stagnant water and also restoring the quality of water to a large extent.
“Already the work of cleaning of the lake has made a considerable progress as we have checked 90% of the industrial affluent coming in to the lake by diverting three drains”, Rama Rao said. The remaining work will be completed in three four monts, he said.
He vowed to clean and improve the lake water to the level where it can be used for drinking purpose, he said. The waters of the lake which were presently unusable will be cleaned to make them useful.
Rama Raos aid that the government intends to develop Hussain Sagar and the Musi river into major tourist attractions. Rs 370 crore assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency will be used to beautify and develop the lake.
The state of the art equipment was acquired from Malaysia as part of the project.
More than 400-year old Hussain Sagar is the biggest man made urban lake. Excavated and built by an Iranian saint-engineer Hussain Shah Wali during the Qutub Shahi reign the lake was the source of drinking water for the city till a few days ago but gradually it was degenerated due to the urban and industrial affluent and pollutants flowing in to the water body. The annual immersion of thousands of idols, made of Plaster of Paris and other chemicals also added to the pollution level to dangerous levels wiping out all the traces of life and reduced it to a stinking water body.