Five corporates to fund rejuvenation of six lakes

MoUs signed between companies, Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority and custodian civic agencies earlier this month.

The newly formed Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) has now reached out to the city’s corporate sector to conserve and rejuvenate lakes.

Earlier this month, five corporate firms, including Wipro and Biocon, expressed interest to work and fund the rejuvenation of as many as six lakes in the city.

Biocon Ltd. has evinced interest to revive Hebbagodi Lake, while Wipro Ltd. will be rejuvenating Maragondanahalli Lake. Bommanahalli Lake will be revived by the U.B. Group, Mahadevapura Lake by Mphasis India, while two other lakes – Kittaganahalli Lake and Kelsanayakanahalli Lake – will be rejuvenated by Sensara Engineering, an automotive industry in Bommasandra.

Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed between the corporate companies, KLCDA and the custodian of lakes, such as Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

KLCDA’s chief executive officer Ajay Misra said that the authority will now work with the corporate companies and the civic agencies concerned to draw up detailed project reports (DPRs) for works to be taken up in these lakes. Meanwhile, the corporate companies can only help these lakes through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contribution. No commercial activity, entry fee into the lakes or any sort of advertisements would be allowed, he added.

T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, Additional Chief Secretary of Department of Forests, Environment and Ecology, said that for larger lakes, such as Bellandur Lake, the cost of rejuvenation could not be borne by one firm alone. For such large lakes, KLCDA will soon float a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to which multiple firms can contribute. Each of these projects will have a project monitoring committee with equal representatives from the corporate companies, KLCDA and the custodian agency, he said.

 

This article has been taken from here.