Artificial fishery pond lures tourists

Kathmandu:The ‘Bagmati Fishery Pond’ (Bharat Lake) built on Bagmati Bagram has started to attract tourists. The lake located in Bagmati municipality of Sarlahi district is artificial.

According to Mayor Bharat Thapa, in a year, two million tourists, both internal and external, have started arriving to see the lake.

As soon as the water filled, it was estimated that 500 would come daily. But even under construction, the attraction has increased a lot. More tourists than expected have started coming,’ said Mayor Thapa.

In the beginning, the municipality targeted the population of Sarlahi and Rautahat only and targeted 1.6 million tourists annually. It was believed that this project would be successful even if only that came. According to Thapa, a larger number of tourists have started coming from the Bihar region of India.

Now this lake is under construction. The lake is 1400 meters long and has collected 700 meters of water so far. There is a plan to store water in the remaining 700 meters. According to Thapa, about 1.8 million cubic meters of water has accumulated in the lake.

The lake is 70 feet deep in the middle. There will be a lake on one hundred and one bigha land with a road around it. ‘A facility-rich hotel with a mini-casino has been built here. After the hotel is built, the rest of the land will be filled with water,’ said Thapa.

There is about 250 bigha of land in and around the lake. The municipality has taken the goal of developing religious and tourist places by beautifying the surrounding land. Thapa says that domestic and foreign tourists are not being managed properly.

Mayor Thapa argues that since the lake is close to the neighboring country of India, it can generate income by bringing in a large number of tourists from there. India is 42 km from this lake.