Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started de-weeding the historic Bindusagar lake for the upcoming Bhubaneswar Art Trail-2018 (BAT), coinciding with the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup.
The international sporting event along with the 1.3-km trail of art-related activities is likely to attract huge tourist footfall between November 18 and December 18.
International, national and local artists are going to showcase their best works during the art-heritage-culture interface, called BAT.
The Division II of the Engineering Section of BMC has taken up the cleaning of the lake, built around 7-8th Century AD over an area of 21.9 acres. A dip in the tank before entering the temple complexes nearby is considered auspicious.
“The de-weeding work started early this morning and is likely to continue for a fortnight. Once the lake bed is cleaned completely, regular removal of the growing weeds would be done by the agencies concerned till the end of the World Cup as the BAT-2018 would also organised as a major event during the international tournament,’’ BMC Executive Engineer (Division II) Asim Mishra said.
A total of 50 workers would be engaged by the agency with adequate boats to clean the weeds. These would be lifted by tractors to dumping sites. The civic body would be sending around Rs 6 lakh for cleaning the lake, he said.
On the other hand, the private agency engaged by BMC to clean and lift municipal solid waste (MWS) from the Old Town Area, PMR, too is on its toes.
“Besides cleaning the periphery and taking out plastics and bottles from the lake, the private agency is also picking the offerings thrown into the lake during Mahalaya or the miniature boats sailed as a ritual during Kartik Purnima. We have asked PMR to keep the surrounding clean as artists would be starting their work for BAT from October 18,” said City Health Officer Dr. Ramachandra Rout.
