CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), Nagpur took initiative to deploy the airboat ‘JALDOST’ in the Ambajhari Lake of Nagpur to remove weeds, including water hyacinth in association with Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
The ‘JALDOST’ developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), Bengaluru is a low cost indigenous advanced airboat system for clearing weeds and garbage from lakes.
Deweeding trials were conducted at the Ambajhari Lake on 7 September 2023 in the presence of Dr. Abhijeet Chaudhari, IAS, Commissioner, NMC; Smt. Aachal Goyal, IAS, Additional Commissioner, NMC; Dr. Atul Vaidya, Director, CSIR-NEERI; Dr. Atya Kapley, Chief Scientist and Head, EBGD, CSIR-NEERI; Ms. Shweta Banerjee, Executive Engineer, NMC; senior scientists and other officials from CSIR-NAL and CSIR-NEERI. Dr. T. Karthikeyan, Principal Scientist, CSIR-NAL and Project Leader, JALDOST was also present on this occasion.
After the de-weeding trial, Dr. Vaidya said that JALDOST is a remarkable feat of indigenous engineering aimed at conserving water bodies more effectively. Dr. Chaudhari said that the introduction of JALDOST brings hope to the city’songoing struggle with lake pollution and reflects the power of innovation in addressing environmental challenges. Dr. Karthikeyan said that ‘JALDOST’ is a self-propelled floating vehicle designed and developed by CSIR-NAL for cleaning water bodies of our country. This vehicle has already garnered interest and would be deployed in many parts of the country, he added.