Terming it a historic first, they said such trials were earlier planned and contemplated, but could never be taken to conclusion due to various problems associated with the Yamuna like lack of required depth, floating debris in water and the unhygienic condition of the river bank. ? ? ??

The workboat was brought to the city by the naval authorities on the initiative of Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, who has been actively monitoring the rejuvenation of Yamuna as chairman of the NGT-appointed high-level committee (HLC), officials said. ? ? ??

After the successful completion of physical cleaning of the river and its floodplains between Signature Bridge and ITO Barrage, the LG had decided to undertake this venture by requisitioning for a navy boat.

The navy workboat, which is 11 m long with a draft of 1.7 m and displacement of about 12 tons, cruises at a speed of 14 knots, and has a capacity of 35 passengers.?It was brought by road from Kochi in Kerala on June 3?and moored at Signature Bridge jetty, officials said.

A detailed hydro-graphic survey was carried out by the special naval team from Karwar and Dehradun. The survey revealed that in certain patches the depth of the river was less than the required 1.7 m. Thereafter, locally available amphibious desilting equipment were deployed for carrying out desilting of the identified patches and a channel of approximately 30 m width was created by June 20, they said.?

The channel was further given a proper finish by June 22.?Accordingly, in the wee hours of Saturday, the trial run was undertaken. Initially, the trial run was planned only on a 3 km stretch between Signature Bridge and Boat Club.?However, since the conditions were suitable even beyond that, it was decided to exploit the prevailing conditions and the motivation of initial success to take the boat up to the ITO barrage, officials said.

The workboat has been successfully moored at a special jetty created for it at ITO Barrage. It will continue to operate from there, carrying out further detailed navigability trials in the Yamuna so as to earmark proper channels on which boats carrying passengers and goods could successfully run in the near future, they added.