Develop Gurugram’s Sukhrali pond as a tourist spot: Locals
The pond, which is believed to be 165 years old, was revived in 2013 by the residents themselves who now want the MCG to declare it a lake.
The residents of Sukhrali in Sector 17 have written to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) asking it to declare a local village pond a lake and develop it as a picnic spot, said area councillor Anup Singh Bhambhu on Friday.
The pond, which is believed to 165 years old, has been revived by the residents.
In 2013, the residents initiated the process of reviving the pond by spending their own money, said Bhambu. They restored the closed rainwater channels and stopped illegal sewage disposal.
“In 2016, we roped in the MCG for the construction of a boundary wall and walking tracks. So far, the MCG has spent ₹1.9 crore on the development of the pond,” he said.
The pond is spread over an area of two-and-a-half acres and has a depth of 20 feet. The residents said the pond had turned barren after its water level went down.
Land grabbers eyeing to usurp the pond for construction purposes had started throwing malbas (construction debris) to level it.
“We wrote to the MCG two weeks ago asking it to declare the pond a lake and allow boating on it. We have learnt that the MCG has conveyed our demand to the chief minister. We hope he would appreciate our efforts into transforming this dead pond into a beautiful water body with boating facilities,” said Bhambhu. Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is expected to visit the village on August 28 to attend an event.
The residents said they used to go to Leisure Valley Park in Sector 29 for their morning and evening walks. However, they can now enjoy walking by the pond, which has different types of fish in it.
“This is our ancestral pond. Within the MCG limits, there are 243 ponds or water bodies. However, barring a few in Basai, none of the ponds has water in them. Our pond is centrally located. Its commercial value is estimated to be in crores and this is probably the reason why land grabbers want to level it. The chief minister laid the foundation stone for the boundary wall in March 2018,” Anil Singh, a resident, said, adding that the residents now want him to designate it as a lake.
The MCG is considering the proposal of the residents to develop the pond as a picnic spot, given the fact that the place is close to the Expressway and is well connected by roads and the Metro.
Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner, who also has the additional charge of the MCG commissioner, said, “We appreciate the efforts made by the residents, the councillor and the MCG. This place has the potential of being developed as a good picnic spot and a boating site. We are working on it.”
In the past 10 years, the city water table has gone down from 150 feet to 400 feet at several places, reducing many water bodies to barren fields.
Professor Gauhar Mehmud, head of the department of civil engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia University, said, “Due to the depletion of the water table at an alarming rate, the Central Groundwater Authority declared Gurugram a dark zone in 2011. Sukhrali pond also lost its water, and we asked the MCG to construct rainwater harvesting pits in 2010-11 to revive it. Now that the pond has been revived, the administration should take it as model for reviving other water bodies in the district.”