The foundation stone for the comprehensive beatification project of the historic Raja Talab of Jharia was laid on Friday by Jharia MLA Purnima Singh in presence of Dhanbad MP P.N. Singh and others.

Developed in late 1920 by the erstwhile king of Jharia estate, Late Durga Prasad Singh, the pond served to be the centre of all religious activities of the district be it Navpatrika Snan Puja ahead of Durga Puja or immersion of idols after Durga puja and offering of Arghya during Chhath Puja.

The administration’s negligence led to encroachment of the pond’s ghats by residents who constructed houses. The dumping of garbage and sewage into the pond turned into one of the dirtiest ponds of the state during the recent years.

A survey of different water bodies of Dhanbad conducted in 2007 by the Environment Engineering department of IIT (ISM) revealed that the water of Raja Talab had turned alkaline and its pH value rose to 8.4 and Cations and Anions are also beyond the permissible limit of WHO.

The project, divided into two phases, including first phase worth Rs 2crore as per which bouldering, gravelling and pitching of pond bank besides staircase construction, plantation, concrete recliners laying for seating arrangement, boundary wall construction on the three sides of the pond situated over 8.64 acres will be carried out by Dhanbad Municipal Corporation.

“The pond beautification assumes great significance for Jharia from both ecological and environmental point of view besides historical point of view as the pond is like a heritage for the town,” said Purnima Singh.

Divulging more details, she said, “The beautification work will be carried out in two phases, during the phase 1 of which work will be carried out only on three sides of the pond which are encroachment free and thus there is no dispute.”

“ Once the people like the work carried out in phase 1, we are sure that they will themselves support for the second phase of work during which beautification will be carried out by clearing some encroachments,” said the Jharia MLA.

“The bouldering and pitching work besides the staircase development on the ghat carried out as part of phase I of the work will be of great help to thousands of women who perform puja and offer Arghya to Sun God during Chhath festival,” said Singh.

When asked about the failures of several earlier attempts to carry out beautification of the pond, Singh said, “We are hopeful that the work this time will be carried out as per the plan and responsibility for monitoring the successful completion of the project on time lies with the common people of Jharia.”

“We will also carry out regular monitoring of the execution of the project as I am also the chairman of district development coordination and monitoring committee,” said Dhanbad MP P.N. Singh.