Hyderabad: The long-standing issue of demarcating the full-tank level (FTL) of Durgam Cheruvu, which has been a point of contention for the past 25 years, is set to be resolved soon. HYDRAA commissioner AV Ranganath has assured that the final notification for the lake’s FTL will be issued, with the process expected to be completed within four months.

On Friday, January 10, he held a public hearing on the objections to the preliminary notification issued in the past on Durgam Cheruvu’s FTL. Objections and suggestions were received from the residents of 6 colonies living around Durgam Cheruvu Lake, as per the High Court’s direction.

Speaking on the occasion, Ranganath, who is also the chairman of the Lake Protection Committee, said that scientific methods were being adopted to prepare the final notification for the lake’s FTL which was being prepared.

Around 100 people who gathered at HYDRAA’s office in Buddha Bhavan in Secunderabad told Ranganath that the issue first began when due to heavy rain in 2000, the water level increased, and the area which was covered by water was treated as the FTL at the time.

Claiming that the lake’s FTL was 65.12 acres, they said that over the years, the FTL was being shown differently by various departments.

While in many places the FTL was shrinking, the residents claimed that the FTL was increasing in Durgam Cherucu.

They also said that in the last 25 years, the Lake Protection Committee had not held a single public hearing on the issue.

The residents told Ranganath that certain media and social media were portraying their lands falling inside the FTL of Durgam Cheruvu. They also said that their plight was such that they were neither able to construct houses in their vacant lands, nor were they able to sell their lands during dire financial needs.

Telling the residents that using revenue records, lake memoirs, satellite images of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), and other documents to ensure that FTL will be established such that the FTL in the final notification can’t be disputed.

He told them that the establishment of the FTL was a collaborative work of the Survey of India, Survey of Telangana, the irrigation department, GHMC, HMDA, NRSC, and the revenue department. He said that help was also being sought from the experts of BITS Pilani, IIT Hyderabad, and JNTU for this purpose.