Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started de-weeding the historic Bindusagar lake in the wake of the Bhubaneswar Art Trail-2018 (BAT), coinciding with the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup, scheduled to be held between November 18 and December 18.

The 1.3 km trail of art related activities are likely to attract huge tourist footfall during the mega event.

Various national and local artists are going to showcase their best works during the art-culture interface, called BAT.

The Division II of the Engineering Section of BMC has take up the cleaning of the historic lake, which is built around 7-8 the Century AD and is with an area of about 8.9 hectares or 21.9 acres. It is believed that a dip in the tank before entering into the temple complexes nearby is auspicious and associated with religious sentiments of thousands of devotees, who come on special occasions.

The lake is of 450 metre in length and 320 metre in width with average depth between 2.5 metre in Summer to 4.5 metre in monsoons.

BMC Executive Engineer (Division II) Asim Mishra said ``the de-weeding work has started from early this morning and is likely to continue for a fortnight.

Once the lake bed is cleaned completely regular cleaning of the growing weeds would be carried out by the agencies concerned till the end of the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup as the BAT-2018 would also organised as a major event during the international tournament.’’

Now daily 50 workers would be engaged by the agency with adequate boats to clean the weeds from the lake. Later the cleaned weeds would be lifted by tractors to dumping sites. The civic body would invest around Rs 6 lakh for the cleaning of the lake.

On the other hand, the private agency engaged by BMC to clean and lift municipal solid waste (MWS) from the Old Town Area, PMR, has intensified its work of cleaning the surrounding areas of the holy water body.

“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.