NASHIK: The wait for the revival of the ancient holy ponds along the river Godavari is still not over. Nashikites, pilgrims, environmentalists and the tourists will have to wait further to see the revival of as many as 17 ancient ponds and live streams on the bed of river Godavari.
A scheduled programme to make way for keeping as many as 17 ancient ponds free of contrete-base has been put off following objection raised by local corporators and residents. The inaugural programme was scheduled for Friday (December 13) by Smart City Company under the Goda Project. The company has drafted a plan for revival of altogether 17 ancient holy ponds along the river Godavari.
On Wednesday, in a sudden development ahead of tomorrow’s scheduled muhurat, some local corporators and residents called on city engineer Sanjay Ghuge and took objection to the scheduled programme, forcing the NMC administration to postpone the event for future date.
The Smart City Company has undertaken beautification work of river Godavari which included making the river bed at seventeen kunds (ponds) free of concretisation from the stretch between Ramkund and Rokdoba Talim, the NMC sources informed.
A survey was recently conducted by the core committee led by project manager Singh and Smart City Comany official Sayyad in presence of Devang Jani and Arc Prajakta Baste to finalise and identify locations of the ancient ponds. Geographical maps of the years 1919 and 2019 were taken into consideration to conduct the survey for removal of concretisation at river beds of the ponds.
As per plans, the project manager and the Smart City officials had jointly decided to begin work for removal of concritisation at river bed near Gandhi Talav at 9.30 am on Friday. The environmentalists and the Nashikites had expressed satisfaction over the proposed decision with the hope that the holy Godavari will again start flowing freely due to revival of its live streams and removal of concretisation at the river beds.
The river will again be in its original form and bio-diversity will be restored. Meanwhile, Goda activist Devang Jani has appealed people’s representatives to help restore natural sources and bio-diversity of the river Godavari and do not oppose to an environmental task undertaken under the Goda Project. “Respect People’s sentiments,” he urged.
