Preservation of Dal Lake in Srinagar is always the biggest headache for J&K Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA). Initially, they tried to manually de-weed the lake and later introduced weed harvesting machines which were not successful in removing weed or lily pads which are deep-rooted.
An expert committee appointed by J&K High court has advised LAWDA to seek the consultancy of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in procuring an indigenously designed and built weed remover. Earlier attempts of cleaning the lake with expensive imported machines failed. With an aim of continuous weed cleaning activities in Dal Lake, LAWDA has procured Grab aquatic weed harvester along with two 100 Ton capacity Dumb Barges, one Self Propelled Barge from APM Marines, Kochi through DMRC.
Navgathi design team undertook the entire design of Grab aquatic weed harvester and barges. After understanding the issues faced by LAWDA we designed this self-propelled aquatic Weed Harvester with 2 tonnes lifting capacity. Tata Hitachi EX 200 Hydraulic Excavator was redesigned for marine applications.
Practical experience of Sri. George Mathew, APM Marines contributed a lot during the design and construction of the Grab aquatic weed harvester.
This machine can reach up to 7 meters in depth. The grab is designed for removing the weeds/lily pads along with roots, i.e. about 6” to 9” of mud is scooped along with the weeds. Weeds thus collected will be transferred to barges for dispersal. Machines will extract and remove lily weeds to the extent of about 500 tons on daily basis. The same machine can be used as a grab dredger to deepen the water bodies up to 7 meters.
These machinery were constructed at Navgathi boatyard situated in Kodungallur under the supervision of DMRC and later transported to J&K. Machinery was launched on 20th August 2020 and have started the lake cleaning operations.
Navgathi is experienced in designing and constructing the most prestigious and innovative projects like solar ferries, high-speed passenger ferries, weed harvesters, dredgers, Floating resorts, Survival craft training simulator, etc…..
Watch the video of Grab Aquatic Weed Harvester
Video credits: ANI News
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