Hyderabad: At last there is a glimmer of hope for the fast shrinking and disappearing lakes of Hyderabad.

The state government has decided to launch a drive against the encroachments and construction of illegal buildings on the lake beds and set up special tribunal to deal with the cases.

A high level review meeting jointly conducted by the municipal administration, Minister K. Taraka Rama Rao and irrigation minister T. Harish Rao also agreed to seek the help from the High Court, in fixing the Full Tank Level of all the lakes, as encroachers were trying to block the plan by bringing stay orders from the court.

The move comes in the backdrop of the city’s lakes disappearing at an alarming rate.

Hyderabad was once known as the City of Lakes but today 90 per cent of its 2,800 lakes have disappeared and concrete jungles have come up where they once thrived.

Even the lakes that survived the encroachments are facing serious threat from high levels of pollution and degradation.

The two major sources of drinking water, Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar, have also not been spared from encroachment.

Minister KTR asked officials to take effective measures to save the historic reservoirs by removing all illegal constructions around them, which have been hampering the flow of rain waters into the bodies.

“There is a need to save the two reservoirs,” he told officials.

In the first phase of the plan chalked out at the meeting, 30 lakes will be fenced off to save them from any further encroachments.

Rs1 billion (Dh56.93 million) will be spent on the project.

A nodal officer will be appointed for every lake and he will be responsible for its development and protection.

The measures to protect the water bodies include diversion of sewage and effluents to other channels and not letting them into the lakes.

Irrigation minister Harish Rao urged the officials to make the lake protection programme in the city a success in the lines of Mission Kakatiya which was a big success in districts of Telangana in saving and developing irrigation tanks.