Nashik: The civic administration is contemplating removal of concrete from the Godavari , for which a committee will draw up an action plan, said municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe on Monday.“A lot of things are going on with respect to the river and some are in the pipeline. Encroachments are being removed with in a big way. I am assuring that everything will be done for the benefit of the river. Godavari is after all Nashik’s identity, its lifeline,” said the new civic chief.After his first visit to the river banks, Mundhe had issued instructions to remove all the encroachments, including the old vegetable market, following which the anti-encroachment department swung into action.About the high court’s directions based on the recommendations to remove encroachments on the blue line of the river, he said he would see the orders and that the water resources department would decide on that.“There is lot of concrete in the river. On the basis of the recommendations by the Central Research Institute and NEERI, many positive steps with respect to the Godavari will be taken,” said Mundhe.A civic official said that after Mundhe’s instructions, encroachments were being removed every day, including the vegetable market. “The NMC established a vegetable market for vendors who sit on the river banks. They have been refusing to shift to the nearby marketplace saying that people will not go there. However, once people come to know that the market has been shifted, they will go to there. We will be shifting the vendors. For the past couple of days, we have been evicting them from the river banks,” said the officer.Environmentalists, experts and the civic administration have been debating the issue of concrete for a long, even as petitions have been filed in the high court and National Green Tribunal pleading for its removal.Petitioners and environmentalists are also insisting on restoration of natural drainage pattern of Godavari in Trimbakeshwar and Nashik, rejuvenation of natural streams and ponds that are covered with concrete so that the floodwater will be able to flow naturally without obstacles as this slab is in the blue line.

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