The Lake division of Bangalore Development Authority has handed over the lakes under its supervision to respective zonal engineers of BDA. The north and south lake divisions have been closed down, and have been merged with the BDA’s Engineering Department.

A BDA official, who didn’t want to be named, said that BDA’s lake division had 123 lakes to look after, but only five engineers. These five had to manage the execution of restoration plans. They also had to oversee the protection of these lakes spread all over the city and take action against encroachers, which was practically impossible. Hence the lakes have been handed over to the respective zonal engineering divisions, which will work to develop the lakes.

Urban Development Department had handed over 78 lakes in Bangalore limits to the BDA, for restoration and rejuvenation, two years ago – on January 25, 2012. After this, again 29 lakes were handed over to BDA by BBMP. In 2009, BJP government led by Yeddyurappa handed over 11 lakes to BDA for rejuvenation. So the total number of lakes with BDA is around 118.

Lakes waiting to be rejuvenated

A document obtained from the BDA by Citizen Matters has all list of all the lakes under BDA currently. BDA officials claim that various consultants are working on the Detailed Project Report for the rejuvenation of selected lakes, but the actual work will be taken up as per the availability of funds with the BDA.

Here’s the list of lakes in possession of BDA.

Note:

1) Citizen Matters couldn’t verify whether list contains all the lakes, or there are some lakes left in the list. Duplications have been eliminated. There is a possiblity that some lakes are still under BDA, but not in the list. If you happen to note such lakes, please drop a comment.

2) Citizen Matters had published an action plan by BBMP for saving various lakes in Bangalore, drafted in 2011. The list had areas of the lakes mentioned. Most of these lakes have been handed over to BDA now. We have taken the list and have compared the area of the lakes, and the area, if different from the old list, has been added in the column ‘Area New’. Some lakes have expanded in area while getting transferred from BBMP to BDA, while many lakes have shrunk in size.

BBMP preparing to take 11 lakes back

There are 11 lakes already rejuvenated but not handed over to BBMP. When asked about this, BBMP Chief Conservator of Forests Brijesh Kumar said the BBMP officials have asked the BDA to give the list of things / work done by BDA at each lake. Once the BBMP gets this list, a spot inspection would be done for each lake to compare the list and the reality. After this the cost of maintenance would be estimated and BBMP would take over the lake.

Inputs from Nikita Malusare.

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