Dredging equipment dumped beside Bindusagar lake in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, July 6: Dredging of the Bindusagar lake at Old Town has begun with a Calcutta-based shipping firm undertaking the work using state-of-the-art technology.

Odisha Construction Corporation Limited assigned the dredging of the 8th century AD lake to the company for Rs 3.11 crore.

“The dredging will take at least four months, and during this period, around 1.18 lakh cubic metre sediments will be removed from the lake. We will undertake dredging up to a depth of 1 metre to 1.5 metres,” said Md Ayub Ali, senior manager of the defunct projects and recovery cell of the corporation.

He said experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, would visit the city and submit reports on dredging. The work will proceed accordingly.

An official of the firm that began the work on July 3 said they were using heavy dredgers to lift the sediments and decamp them at other locations.

“We have started setting up the machines. Assembling of the equipment will take at least 10 days. After that, we will undertake the bottom-cleaning activity, which will take more than three months in this case,” said Sujay Saha, deputy general manager of Rashmi Bulk Shipping Limited, the company providing technological assistance.

Saha said that by assembling the equipment they would make a mini ship in the lake, spreading over 22 acres. The structure will be placed in the lake and it will dredge the bottom sludge and drain them off to a place around 200 metres away. “In this process, there will be no need to drain water. Only the sludge will be removed,” he said.