Bhubaneswar: On World Environment Day today, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to clean up the Bindusagar pond here, the holy pond in use since the 8th century for daily rites of Lingaraj temple, within three months.
The memorandum was signed between Odisha Bridge Construction Corporation (OBCC), on behalf of the Government of Odisha and Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Indian Oil (IOC) Odisha Campus, Bhubaneswar, Friday.
Engineer Jaya Krishna Das, Managing Director of OBCC and Bhaskar N Thorat, Director ICT-IOC, IIT-KGP Extension Centre, BBSR signed the MoU on behalf of their organisations.
As per the understanding, ICT-IOC Bhubaneswar will study and implement the clean-up projects for all 5 ponds including Bindusagar, within three months from the date of signing up of the MoU, subject to Covid-19 restrictions.
Cleaning up of the remaining four ponds will be taken up afterwards, the MoU said. The pond clean-up project will be funded from CSR expenditure of IOCL while it will be carried out by ICT-IOC, Bhubaneswar. The institute has also agreed to bear the maintenance expenses for a period of three years. The state government will provide electricity at free of cost for the projects, as per the MoU signed Friday.
A state-of-the-art technology known as Hydrodynamic Cavitation will be applied for cleaning up the water of the 5 ponds. The technology has been developed by the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and has been successfully implemented in several projects throughout the country.
ICT-IOC, Bhubaneswar will take the help of ITC Mumbai to design the system for cleaning up the ponds, including the 21-acre area of Bindusagar, the biggest among all the holy ponds situated near Lingaraj temple.