Ootagedda drain near Daspalla Hills being renovated as part of the ‘Smart City’ project. more-in Pursuing a design provided by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) will undertake beautification of a major storm water drain in the city under the ‘Smart City’ project. Pilot project The exclusive design using Phytorid waste water management technology has been provided to the GVMC to undertake a pilot project on Ootagedda. “A surplus weir will allow storm water to flow into the sea, retaining the sullage. Towards the end of the drain, filters will be fixed and particular species of plants with deep roots that absorb the toxins will be planted,” explains GVMC Superintendent Engineer (Projects) M. Venkateswara Rao. The treated water will be let off into the drain again downstream. The plants are proposed to be raised in about 3,000 square metres of space near the Ramakrishna Mission. The pilot project on the 4-km-long Ootagedda has been estimated to cost ? 2 crore and tenders have already been called for, according to the SE. Sewage treatment plants The civic body has earlier proposed to undertake the treatment of sullage from the storm water drains at mini-sewage treatment plants, connecting them to bigger STPs to prevent their flowing into the sea. But the plan was dropped as the process was finally felt to be too cumbersome, the SE says. Once the tender is awarded, the work is expected to be completed in six months. Right now, work on making the kuchha Ootagedda into a pucca drain is going on. Depending on the results of the pilot project, four more drains are likely to be covered under the project. The Hanumanthavaka drain that opens into the sea near Santi Ashram, near IT Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Madhurawada, China Waltair drian and Sagarnagar ‘geddas’ are the other drains.

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