Mirik Lake to be cleaned, fishes to be auctioned

As part of the cleaning operations of Mirik Lake, a popular tourist destination in north Bengal, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration is all set to auction the fishes in the waterbody after emptying it.
The auction, likely to take place from Monday onwards, will be done by the GTA Fishery department.
GTA Fishery Department in charge Jyoti Rai said, "The GTA tourism department will be starting the process of cleaning the lake soon so we must start getting the fishes out from Mirik Lake and so we have planned to auction it.
There are fishes in the lake like the silver carp, grass carp, buduna ... We plan to auction the fishes from Monday onwards and it depends on how many days it will go on according to the number of fishes caught," Rai said.

"There are small fishes in the lake also and we plan to distribute them to the fishermen," he said .
The GTA has already started a Sewage Treatment Plant project for the sewage and drainage system for the houses near the lake which is also part of keeping the Mirik Lake clean as most of the drain water and sewage from the nearby households falls in the lake.

The first phase, being done at an estimated cost of Rupees 37 crore, includes setting up a three sewage treatment plant and a better drainage and sewage system for the surrounding houses near the lake.

GTA Assistant Engineer Nayan Rai said, "About 35 percent work of the first phase has already finished. Work of the second phase, which will be done at a cost of about Rupees 25 crore, will also start soon.
The second phase includes cleaning of the Lake and beautification of the Mirik Lake area," he said.
Mirik Lake is one of the popular tourist destinations in the hills and once these projects of the GTA are completed it is hoped that it will give a boost to the tourism industry.