Restoration
of a lake that lay within an urban sprawl is indeed a complex matter,
particularly that has been heavily contaminated with incursion of sewage and
other forms of pollutants. It is not a task that can be accomplished in quick
time, particularly, the de-silting part. De-silting a contaminated lake,
saturated with pollutants, needs very careful planning and coordination,
particularly the transportation and eventual disposal of the recovered silt.
This paper discusses the three major methodologies for de-silting an urban lake,
setting out the advantages and disadvantages of each, by taking the example of
Ulsoor Lake of Bangalore City. The three methodologies are, firstly, excavation
of silt from the drained out lake bed, secondly, dredging the lake with a small
road transportable inland cutter suction dredger and pumping the dredged silt to
a suitable disposal site, directly to final destination or to an intermediate
site before relocating elsewhere by other means, and lastly, dredging the lake
with a clam-shell grab dredger, slowly and delicately and transporting the
dredged material in tipper trucks to a suitable disposal site.
Address:
95, AF Golden Jubilee Enclave
Defence Layout, Vidhyaranyapura
Bangalore - 560 097. Karnataka, India
Phone: 3642746
E mail: jjputhur@yahoo.com
Top