WRD officials said that an alternative site has been identified in Karigiri village near Katpadi to provide free land for displaced families.
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Demolition of encroachments began on the rejuvenated twin lakes — Kazhinjur and Dharapadavedu — near Katpadi here on Saturday, to develop the area into a children’s park and parking lot.
Officials of the Water Resources Department (WRD), which executes the demolition and rejuvenation of the waterbodies, said that the three-day exercise will be completed on Monday.
A total of 287 illegal structures — 205 and 82 illegal structures around Dharapadavedu and Kazhinjur lake respectively — will be razed on the encroached land, officials said.
About 25 acres of the encroached land are being recovered for setting up facilities such as children’s park and parking lots. “The rejuvenation of the twin lakes has almost been completed. Once demolished, the encroached space around these lakes will be fenced with a compound wall to prevent future encroachments. Entire work will be completed by December-end,” R. Ramkumar, Assistant Engineer (AE), PWD (Katpadi), told The Hindu.
WRD officials said that an alternative site has been identified in Karigiri village near Katpadi to provide free land for displaced families on compassionate grounds.
As per norms, each of the affected family is eligible for a maximum of three cents of land on two conditions — no regular income and no properties registered in their names. Most of them have been shifting to the alternative site in Karigiri village.
Spread over 100 acres, the twin lakes are separated by a narrow channel. Each lake, on an average, can store 35 mcft of water.
The WRD took up the work at a cost of ₹28.45 crore in 2022, under the Rehabilitation and Restoration of Twin Lakes scheme. As part of the project, the twin waterbodies have been desilted to the original depth of six metres. The lakes were also deepened to increase their storage capacity.
A tiled walkers’ path has been laid around the two lakes. Boating facilities will be created in the coming weeks to attract local tourists.
Man-made islands have been created at the centre of the lakes to make the waterbodies a tourist hub. These islands will also attract migratory birds. Native tree species have been planted. Saplings were procured free of cost from farmers and the Department of Horticulture.
At present, over 15,000 residents in at least eight villages depend on these lakes for consumption. The local bodies dug borewells around the bund of these waterbodies to meet the residents’ domestic needs.
The WRD maintains about 100 of the 519 tanks in Vellore and at least 24 tanks, including the twin lakes, in Katpadi.
Published – November 16, 2024 11:14 pm IST
