Pune touch in Dal Lake revival

Here’s what’s on the agenda: It is setting up three waste water treatment plants at Laam Nishat, Habak and Hazratbal, the major entry points of sewage around the periphery of the lake. The three plants together will be able to treat 15 million litres of effluent a day once it’s commissioned.

And though the heavy snowfall has slowed construction, Harshad Bastikar, vice-president, Water & Waste Solutions, Thermax, says there shouldn’t be a delay in commissioning the project on May 31.

In March, a parliamentary standing committee pulled up the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed government and the Environment Ministry for not doing enough to conserve the Dal Lake. It said a high level of effluents was being pumped into the lake from different sources and pointed to the ‘‘lack of commitment on the part of the Central and state governments to conserve the exotic elegance of the lake’’.

The ,lake which sustains the livelihood of more than 50,000 people, has shrunk 50 per cent in the last 50 years, from its original size of 22 sq km to a mere 11 sq km, thanks to encroachment and pollution. Thermax needed a year of research to find out the most polluting points of waste water entry.

‘‘Ideally, the treatment plants had to be set up somewhere near these entry points. The three we chose constitute 90 per cent volume of the waste water entering the lake,’’ says Bastikar.

Thermax edged out competitor Ion Exchange and a local player to bag the contract. During the bidding process, Thermax’s patented fluidised aerobic bio-reactor (FAB) technology was evaluated. In the end, Thermax won because FAB offered the lowest life cycle cost and took up the least space (one tenth compared to conventional plants), adds Bastikar.

So, how difficult is it to work in the Valley? ‘‘We haven’t faced any problems. The locals are warm and friendly.’’ In fact, most of the construction work has been contracted to locals and Thermax has three engineers on site, says Bastikar, who has been to the Valley several times to oversee the project.

How much cleaner will the Dal Lake be after the Thermax effort? ‘‘We are doing Phase I of the project, which will take care of 40 per cent of the effluents.’’