‘Ready with plan to revive Powai lake’

MUMBAI:The Bombay HC on Tuesday directed the BMC, the district collector, suburban, and all other stakeholders to come up with an effective solution to help revive

MUMBAI:The Bombay HC on Tuesday directed the BMC, the district collector, suburban, and all other stakeholders to come up with an effective solution to help revive the Powai lake.

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The BMC told the court that in compliance with its previous order, it had decided to initiate within the next six months, a series of short-term measures for the rejuvenation of the lake and plantation around its periphery.

The counsel for the BMC, advocate Trupti Puranik, told a bench led by Justice VM Kanade that on September 8, it held a meeting with the collector and appointed a consultant to help stop the ingress of sewage into the lake and to come up with beautification options.

The submissions came while the bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by social activist Shiv Shankar Joshi. The PIL claims that untreated sewage and debris are dumped into the lake indiscriminately, the hillocks around the lake have been destroyed and trees felled illegally. Yet, the authorities have failed to take any corrective steps. In July, another bench of the court asked the district collector, suburban, to verify the above claims and submit a report on Tuesday. The collector and BMC filed their affidavits confirming the claims and said they had decided on steps to revive the lake. BMC has said between April 2017 and February 2019, it would initiate steps to clean and revive the lake.It will improve water quality, create parking and sanitation facilities, install LED lights and CCTV cameras and start awareness programmes.