Water treatment plant in Cubbon Park nearing completion

Water treatment plant in Cubbon Park nearing completion
BDA has plans to make Cubbon Park self-sufficient in water for its gardening needs
Times of India

Termed Bangalore's showpiece, the Cubbon Park, spread across about 300 acres, will be self-sufficient in water supply in a few months' time with an exclusive one-of-itskind tertiary treatment plant. This project is being undertaken by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

Speaking on the project, Conservator of Forest, C Jayaram, on deputation to BDA said, "the tertiary treatment plant being set up by the BDA is costing Rs 3.7 crores as capital cost and aims at providing non-potable but high standard water up to 1.5 million litres per day (MLD). The project is being carried out by a French firm called Degremont and is expected to be complete in a couple of months' time. The project got delayed by a month because of rains. With this kind of capacity we will have a surplus of 0.5 million litres as the requirement for Cubbon park is one million litres per day. There is a proposal to provide the remaining water to Vidhana Soudha and Raj Bhavan".

Further, he said, "the tertiary treatment plant is strategically situated abutting the public sewer to avoid using power to pump the sewage into the plant. This tertiary treatment plant is a hitech one compared to Lalbagh, which is a conventional one. Named membrane bio-reactor, this technology is ten years old in the US and European countries and is being set up for the first time in the country".

This highly efficient system with the help of microbes will first eat all the organic matter in the sewage and then when the membrane cassette is released into the duct will filter the water while removing bacteria, fungus and virus. Later, this water is chlorinated and the output is colourless and odourless water with the purity label of 80 percent and later stored in the 1.5 MLD capacity storage tank. This will be released into the park through a computer irrigation network system making it completely automated. Pop up sprinklers will be set up to water the whole park. The computer irrigation network is a popular system followed at the Karnataka Golf Association and Bangalore Golf Club.

This is the second tertiary treatment plant being set up by the BDA, the first being at Lalbagh. The Lalbagh tertiary treatment plant was commissioned four months ago at a cost of Rs 3.5 crores with a capacity of recycling 1.5 MLD per day. The BDA intends to maintain the Cubbon Park tertiary treatment plant for three years and will later hand it over to the Horticulture Department for selling the non-potable water. The Conservator of Forest said there are potential buyers including the Karnataka State Cricket Association for maintaining the turf.
On plans to rejuvenate the Cubbon Park, BDA's Public Relations Officer T C Kathyayini said, "lack of adequate water supply, sewerage lines across the park, garbage and sediment dumps, proper illumination, non-functioning of fountains, and inadequate walkways have been our observation. So to rejuvenate the Cubbon Park we are providing a 1.5 MLD tertiary treatment plant with MBR technology, computerised irrigation network, formation of pathways, illumination, restoration of water bodies and repair of sewerage lines".