The District Administration along with Irrigation Department and various Panchayat would soon be launching a project called ‘Jal Dhar’ for carrying out maintenance works of around 129 water bodies located in various parts of Udaipur district.

According to Ashutosh A.T Pednekar, District Collector, Udaipur, water bodies of district falls under purview of Irrigation Department and Gram Panchyats of respective villages. Nearly 35 lakes are under irrigation department while 94 come under panchayats.

Pednekar further added that project will cover four major points namely development of areas surrounding the lakes, seep trenching at the promenade (‘Paal’) of various lakes, repairing canals of these lakes and lake cleaning.

The objective behind the project is to increase water availability for irrigation purpose, rain water conservation and for increasing tourism. Initially, field photography and GPS Survey of these lakes would be done along and an individual project report made for every lake. Lake Badi, lake Goverdhan Sagar and lake Udai Sagar are some of the listed ones.

The 35 lakes falling under Irrigation Department have a total catchment area of around 3500 sq. km with storage capacity of around 60500 MpFt and have canals stretching to 206 km.

The 94 lakes coming under Gram Panchayats have a total catchment area of 1413 sq km with storage capacity of more than 2208 MpFt and canal stretch of 291 km.

Pednekar informed that instructions to all related officials will be given after a meeting scheduled on 22^nd April at Collectorate. It is targeted to complete the project before this rainy season.