Dredging of Settling Basin at Teilbal by LAWDA

Lakes and Waterways Development Authority has started the dredging of the Settling Basin using the Pamposh Crawl Cat Suction Dredger available with the Authority today on 13.07.2020.

The dredging of the Settling Basin was overdue and it was not done for the last about two decades due to various reasons. Over all these years huge quantity of silt has got accumulated in the Settling Basin which has otherwise the carrying capacity of arresting 80000 tonnes per annum of silt coming from catchment. Over these years about 1.25mts thick layer of silt has got deposited in the Settling Basin.

This is of paramount importance to desilt the Settling Basin having an area of about 0.12Sqkms (122500 sqmts) to clean it of silt and other unwanted material as it acts as a filter before the water goes into the dal lake.

The world-famous Dal Lake has about 375Sqkms of catchment area with forests and mountains. Apart from natural springs oozing water from the bed of the lake, the Tailbal Nallah feeds about 70% of water which is one of the main fresh water feeding canal while passing through Settling Basin and finally culminates into the lake. The incoming water from the hilly terrains has a good quantum of soil content which settles on the bed of the Settling Basin in the form of sedimentation /sludge. Incase, it is left un attended the silt will pass directly to the Lake thereby decreasing its depth.

In order to address this grave situation, the Suction Dredger available with the Authority has a capacity of removing about 120Cum/hr of silt which has been shifted recently from Dal lake.

It is expected that the Suction dredger will clean the Settling Basin of silt within a year.

The dredging was kick started by Vice Chairman Lakes and Waterways Development Authority in presence of Superinteng Engineer,Executive Engineer and other officials.