Six historical water bodies to be renovated in Sambalpur

The district administration of Sambalpur in Odisha today announced to renovate at least six water bodies of the city.
The Minor Irrigation department will renovate the six ponds of the city and the minor irrigation department has prepared a detailed project report for purpose, Sambalpur district collector, Balwant Singh said today.
The detailed Project Report for the renovation of the tank at Betrapara tank of Bhatra in Ward No- 1, pond in Balibandha area in ward no-14, Ramsagar tank in ward no-15, Manikmunda tank in ward no- 17, tank no-1 of Danipali in ward no- 27, and Jagannath colony tank in ward no-29, has been prepared by the irrigation department.

"The Detailed Project Report for the renovation of the six tanks of the city has already been submitted to the superintendent engineer. The Minor Irrigation department will dewater the ponds, desilt the water bodies, clear the weeds, resection the banks, level the adjoining area and construct bathing ghats in the six water bodies," said assistant executive engineer of the Minor Irrigation department, Kishore Kumar Panda.
He also informed that the department was preparing detailed project report for the renovation work of four more water bodies of the city.
There are 94 tanks spread over 930.235 acres under the Sambalpur Municipality area. However, most of them are lying in shamble now and not fit for human use.

Moreover, the encroachers, who have encroached upon the embankment of the tanks, have also made the tanks sewage points and all the drains in the locality end up in the tanks emitting foul smell.