Beautification and periphery development work around Bindusagar lake at Old Town in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, March 16: Bindusagar lake is all set to get a Rs 72-lakh makeover.

The process for renovation of the water body has begun with the Union ministry of housing and urban development approving the release of Rs 72 lakh to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The BMC will use the fund to implement the second phase of the Bindusagar Renovation Project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The ministry has also expressed its happiness over the progress of the work and asked the BMC authorities to upload photographs of the 11th century lake on the JNNURM website for others to follow.

The committee heard the presentations of 22 projects coming from various parts of the country, but Bindusagar was the only proposal from Orissa.

“In phase-I of the renovation plan, the central grant was Rs 1.2 crore. State government and the BMC contributed Rs 15 lakh each. This time also the state government and the urban local body will provide the matching grant of Rs 1.03 crore for phase-II work,’’ BMC slum improvement-cum-public information officer Dillip Kumar Routrai said.

“The Centre has also assured to release more funds for future phases. In fact, the money for the entire project will come in four phases. But the phase-II grant has to be utilised by December this year so that the urban local body will be eligible for the next two grants,’’ he added.

The phase-I grant was utilised in two ways — in treating the water of the lake and making it biologically safe for aquatic animals to inhale and making the lake free from wastes.

It also urged people not to pollute the water body during traditional rituals.

In the past, the lake measuring 1,333 feet long and 574 feet wide on one side and 562 feet on another had become unfit for bathing. Part of the funds were utilised to beautify its periphery and maintain its traditional architecture.

The phase-II grant will be exclusively used for beautification and development of the west, north and east banks.

However, another objective will be to train artisans and workers involved in the project so that they know the basics of beautifying the walls appropriately with laterite stones.

“Beautification of this lake will be an example set by BMC which could be replicated in conserving other water bodies in the city such as the historic ‘Ekamra Kshetra’.

The local community will be motivated not to contaminate the water with religious offerings and using a separate enclosure to throw the substances so that the water is polluted,’’ Routrai said.

“Not only for BMC, the Bindusagar Renovation Project under JNNURM will be an example for the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in implementing centrally-aided projects in other temple water bodies across the city,’’ said a senior BMC official.