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| Civic apathy stalls
water supply project |
MUMBAI One of the city's most ambitious water supply projects, the
Middle Vaitarna, has been stuck for the past six months due to the
alleged lack of interest shown by top-level officials in the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC), sources in the civic water works department
said. As a result, a crucial meeting called by the ministry
of environment and forests (MoEF) in Delhi on May 7 to give clearance
to this important project is now likely to be postponed to June end
mainly because of the lackadaisical attitude of the BMC's top brass,
sources added.
The Middle Vaitarna project is extremely crucial for the city,
given its ever-increasing demand for water. It will supply an additional
455 million litres a day to the city's growing population. It is
estimated to cost over Rs 800 crore and will take at least five
to six years to be completed.
But the project has still not received the green signal and
is awaiting a host of environmental clearances. Sources said that
the then additional municipal commissioner (projects) Subodh Kumar
had to put the entire project on track before he was transferred in
November last.
"Since then, his successor Vidyadhar Kanade has not pursued
it with sufficient vigour," a senior engineer in the water
works department told TNN. Mr Kanade, when contacted by this newspaper,
refused to comment on this allegation.
"The BMC had sought environmental clearance from the Shahapur
forest department in Thane district. They raised some queries and
we answered them satisfactorily. Yet, the forest department has
been simply sitting on the file since the past two months. But what
is more surprising is that the BMC top brass is not showing any
interest in pursuing the matter with the forest department,"
the engineer alleged.
"We were assured that if the necessary clearances were given
bv the local forest department, the MoEF would take little time
in clearing the project. The ministry will now postpone the meeting,
he claimed. The ecological and environmental impact studies have
already been completed.
The project involves construction of a 300-foot tall dam on the
Vaitarna river located in a forest area. From the river, the water
will be brought down to lower Vaitarna. From there, a 7-kin tunnel
will be laid and another 35-krn long pipeline will bring the water
upto the Bhandup water complex.
At present, Mumbai receives about 2,900 million litres of water
a day while the actual demand is for 3,500 million litres. The unaccounted
demand for water is as high as 35 per cent and the BMC wants to
reduce it to at least 20 per cent.
A source said the Middle Vaitarna project could be financed by
the BMC itself instead of approaching the World Bank for funds.
Despite a civic deficit, the BMC has sufficient funds in its G-budget,
which is meant only for financing water works. "It is a self-sustaining
budget with a reserve of about Rs 1,200 crore," the source
said.
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