The historic Raja Talab of Jharia developed by the erstwhile King of Jharia estate, Late Durga Prasad Singh, is set for a makeover by the Dhanbad Municipal Corporation after years of lying in a cesspool of garbage and filth due to administrative apathy.

The civic body has finalised a tender worth Rs 2crore for beautification of the pond situated over 8.46 acres of land near the old fort of Jharia estate in the heart of the town.

The maintenance work, scheduled to begin in a day or two, will include beautification of ghats, installing pavement blocks, concrete recliners and lights around the pond.

The project is being carried out under the National Clean Air Programme in which 102 cities/towns from across the country have been selected for reducing the pollution level by 20-30% by 2024.

“Though the agency for the project has already been selected but work award is likely to be completed within a day or two and ground work is scheduled to begin after the cyclone,” said Deepak Kumar, junior engineer of DMC, to The Telegraph Online.

“There is also a provision for installation of a sewerage treatment plant in the pond on the lines of Bekar Bandh pond of Dhanbad but the project will be taken up during the second phase of beautification by issuing a separate tender,” said Kumar.

At present, the drain water of several adjoining localities flow into the pond, making it one of most polluted in the state.

A survey conducted by the Environment Engineering Department of IIT (ISM) of different water bodies of Dhanbad in 2007 indicated that the water of the Raja Talab has turned alkaline and its pH value as high as 8.4 and cations and anions were also beyond the permissible limit of WHO.

Several agitations by various citizen groups and local activists were carried out earlier demanding a comprehensive beautification of the pond but all the efforts did not bear any result.

Desiltation work of the pond was carried out by the DMC in 2016 at a cost of Rs 55lakh but the pond turned the same in the last five years due to release of waste material and sewage from shops and houses situated on the bank of the river.

Expressing happiness, Amit Sahu, President of Jharia Chamber of Commerce said, “We are happy about the pond beautification plan as the it’s water is considered holy during rituals like navpatrika snan or belbharni puja during the Durga Puja besides idol immersions.”

“To avoid any disturbances in the work like previous occasions we would appeal to DMC to authorise a monitoring committee constituted by Jharia residents comprising of members of Royal family of Jharia to keep a surveillance check on the work as earlier due to lack of proper monitoring, the work could not be completed properly,” said Sahu.