View of Ranchi Lake. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, April 17: Though glossy tourist booklets of the state government continue to extol the panoramic beauty of the Ranchi Lake, residents of the state capital would have to wait for many more years before they can witness a turn-around of the 165-year-old waterbody.

Spread over 53 acres, the lake was excavated by British agent Colonel Onselly in 1842 with the majestic Ranchi Hill and Shiva Temple in the backdrop.

The lake, apart from offering the much-needed breathing space for residents, also served as an excellent rain water collection centre.

Over the years the lake has been converted into a dumping ground for city wastes. As the city grew, and the area adjoining the great water body called Upper Bazaar developed as an important whole sale market, authorities found it more convenient to drain out the sewerage into the Ranchi Lake.

Today, the water of the lake is highly polluted and despite talks of beautification with musical fountains, the lake remains one of the most polluted bodies in the state capital.

In 2005, the then urban development minister, Raghuvar Das, first mooted the idea of roping in Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (Hudco) to develop the lake. Later, the Hudco idea was dropped by the government though efforts were launched to get Jamshedpur Utility Services Company (Jusco) to redo the same.

However, sources in the urban development ministry revealed that with change in government, even the Jusco idea has been temporarily shelved.

Officials said, efforts are now on to revamp the drainage system around Ranchi Lake, and to develop the roads and flanks surrounding the lake in the first phase before the beautification project could be taken up.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) health officer, Rekha Rani Singh, told The Telegraph that beautification of Ranchi Lake involved a lot of other peripheral jobs like drying out the entire water body, undertaking dredging of the lake, improving the drainage system and developing the surrounding roads.

“These jobs would cost a lot of money. A decision has been taken to allot these jobs to various departments, which would be done one at a time,” Singh said.

Executive engineer, S.K. Pathak, revealed that no work on beautification is on the anvil at present.

“A detailed project report, as suggested by Meinhardt consultants, has been drawn up to improve the drainage systems of the areas adjoining the lake. According to the project report, the underground systems would drain out into an area behind Marwari College. The total cost of the project would be around Rs 2.35 crore,” explained Pathak.

The executive engineer added that another project report has been drawn up by the state public works department (PWD) to develop, widen and extend the roads and flanks all around the lake at a total cost of Rs 12.27 crore.