G-20 event: Men, machinery working in double shifts to clean Dal Lake

Srinagar, May 9: Intensifying the ongoing cleaning of Dal Lake in Srinagar ahead of the mega event of G-20, the J&K Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA) has placed men and machinery to work for maximum hours to ensure the cleaning of the water body on a fast-track basis, an official said on Tuesday.
LCMA Vice Chairman, Bashir Ahmad Bhat said that the cleaning of the Dal Lake is an ongoing process, but ahead of the G-20 event, they have switched the cleaning process on a fast track basis.
“In view of the G-20 summit event, men and machinery have been pressed into work for maximum hours, and these days it starts from around 7 am to 9 pm on a daily basis,” he said.
He said they are cleaning the entire Dal and are maintaining the area of around 6.5 sq km, which they have cleaned up over the past two years so that there is no regrowth.
Bhat said there are some areas across the shoreline where they cannot take up cleaning with the help of machines, but they are deploying labour for manual cleaning in those areas alongside the work of dredging on the shorelines.
Pertinently, in order to add to the beauty of the lake and to attract more tourists, J&K LCMA in March this year installed an aerator/fountain inside the Dal Lake which shoots water up to 80 meters high.
According to the LCMA officials, the clusters of the aerators have been pre-programmed with different patterns of formations viz high jet, mist formation, and trumpet formation with changing colors which provides breath-taking and scintillating visuals.
As the G20—tourism summit is scheduled to be held at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) on the banks of Dal Lake here from May 22 to 24 this year, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir—Srinagar is witnessing a major makeover.