In an endeavour to revive tourism in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the J&K government has announced its intent to clean up the famous Dal lake. Srinagar’s famous lake and erstwhile tourism icon which is full of filth and garbage, enduring 15 years of militancy, will reportedly be cleaned up. The Dal Lake project will be one of the most important projects undertaken by the tourism authority of the state in recent times. According to the state’s tourism minister, G A Mir, “The Dal Lake is J&K tourism’s unique selling point. Its current state tells a story of self destruction creating a poor image on tourists. It is thus imperative that we clean up this lake on priority if we want to usher tourists back to J&K. We are planning to complete this project by next summer, which will put J&K on the top of the Indian tourism map once again. We also have plans to develop certain facilities around the lake once it comes back to life.”

The departments of tourism and urban development have joined hands in this venture. The housing and urban development ministry on the other hand is planning to pump in a minimum of Rs 100 crore for the cause. This However, the process will involve at least one year to get the lake back in the original form.

The government will import a special species of fish to effectively remove the choking grass from the lake. A delegation including the tourism minister and the urban development minister will reportedly go to Holland to find efficient and quicker ways to clean the lake. “We will soon go to Holland to import the special fish that acts as a grass cutter. Besides this we are in the process of researching and deploying suitable measures to rid the lake of the deadly weeds that dwell in the lake,” informed Abdul Majid Wani, minister, housing and urban development, Jammu & Kashmir.

The state government is also seeking funds from central sponsored schemes and is open to allowing non governmental organisations (NGOs) to support the project.