Maha Metro drops ambitious plan for tunnel at Futala Lake precincts Viewers gallery on banks of Futala Lake that will now be developed as a single entity minus earlier plan of a tunnel below the road following approval to revised development plan. (File pic) Staff Reporter : Maha Metro has done an about turn on the ambitious Futala Lake project as the premier company officially dropped the plans for a tunnel underneath the existing road. Now the viewers gallery that is under construction would come-up at road level and not atop the tunnel as was envisaged earlier. The Heritage Conservation Committee of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) approved the revised plan submitted by Metro at its meeting held on Tuesday. Since Futala Lake falls under Grade-I heritage status the proposal needed approval from Heritage Committee and the modified project got nod form the experts. The Committee meeting was held at Chhatrapati Sabhagriha at District Collectorate Civil Lines. In the meeting P S Patankar Structural Engineer; Dr Shubha Johri Professor Department of History Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University; Architect Ashok Mokha Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) Milind Meshram and Assistant Director Town Planning NMC Harshal Gedam were present. A 600 meter long and 12 meter wide tunnel underneath the existing road was proposed by Maha Metro that was entrusted the task of developing musical fountain along with light and sound show on Futala Lake. The project was described as world class and touted as one that would help attract tourist to city that lacks any recreational facility. The mega project as expected looked quite impressive on paper but also raised lot of dust as the plan involved substantial damage to environment in viccinity of the lake. So local environmentalist were up in arms since the project was announced and already the lake viccinity has ended-up as big casualty in terms of environment damage due to mindless development activity that was literally thrust on hapless Nagpurians. Since start one was skeptical about the tunnel project and locals could not decipher the reason for Metros insistence on the tunnel. Given the presence of water body nearby there was technical doubts about viability of the project as earlier plan involved closure of the existing road that is being concretised and diverting vehicular movement through the underground tunnel. Funds for the project was not short as same was sanctioned from Central Road Fund under the Union Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways. It was explained that the viewers gallery with capacity of 4000 people would have uninterrupted view across the road of the floating musical fountain on lake waters. But during construction of viewers gallery alone the contractor was all at sea as water seepage brought the work to halt. A major period went into studying the cause as the pillars that needed solid ground was not to be found. The piles dug up ended up getting submerged with water since the lake flows in direction of Telenkhedi garden. That time alone realisation dawned upon planners that tunnel plan at Telenkhedi is fraught with danger and smartly they abandoned the grand plan.

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