Miscellaneous
Minister tees off project to conserve Rupa Lake
Irrigation Minister Dipak Giri teed off the Integrated Rupa Lake Conservation Development Project by unveiling the signboard of the project office at Lekhnath Municipality-14 in Pokhara on Sunday.Lal Prasad Sharma
Irrigation Minister Dipak Giri teed off the Integrated Rupa Lake Conservation Development Project by unveiling the signboard of the project office at Lekhnath Municipality-14 in Pokhara on Sunday.
Addressing the unveiling ceremony, Minister Giri said the project was announced by the government to conserve and improve Rupa Lake which is facing threat due to encroachment.
According to a survey conducted 40 years ago, the lake’s size had reduced to 107 hectares from 135 hectares. A more recent survey which was carried out nine years ago had found that the lake had further lost 800 ropanis of land to human encroachment.
With the objective of restoring and conserving the lake, the Council of Ministers on November 27 had announced Rs 1 billion outlay for the project.
Shreeram Joshi, the project chief, said they will soon set up an office at Talchowk and start preparing the detailed project report.
He added that the project planned to acquire 855 ropanis of private land surrounding the lake in Rupakot, Begnas and Mirchok VDCs as well as incorporate 900 ropanis of public land as part of the lake.
The project has also proposed construction of a dam at Sistenighat-Dubedidunda to increase the lake’s water level and its area.
Once the dam is completed, Joshi said, the lake’s water level will increase by at least three metres and its area will grow to 174.4 hectares.