Mumbai: BMC approves desalination plant project report proposal, opposition says 'waste of money'

An Israeli company appointed by the BMC will create a detailed project report for Rs 5.50 crore with Rs 40 lakh fee more for drafting a tender. Pic/Ashish Raje

The standing committee approved a proposal for a detailed project report on a desalination plant in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday. As per the proposal, the estimated cost of the project is Rs 1,600 crore and maintenance for 20 years will cost an additional Rs 1,920 crore. The project will convert 200 million litres per day (MLD) of sea water every day.

The standing committee also approved the appointment of an Israeli company IDE Water Technologies Ltd which gave an unsolicited proposal for the desalination project. As per the presentation by the company the project will be built on 6 hectares of land. It will create a detailed project report at a cost of Rs 5.50 crore with additional Rs 40 lakh fee for drafting a tender. If the company becomes the lowest bidder, then the corporation will not pay it anything, if another company gets the project, then it has to pay the fee to IDE.

Though the proposal was passed without objection, Ravi Raja, leader of opposition, later said, "It is an imaginary project. It is just a waste of money and will only empty the coffers of the BMC." He claimed that no one can drink water from a desalination plant.

Rais Sheikh, group leader of Samajwadi Party said, "This is just jumla for the election. It is like the penguin project where the cost for penguins was Rs 2 crore and the cost for their maintenance is R100 crore. Instead of a project to use thousand litres of recycled water from Sewage Treatment Plants, the ruling party is wasting money on such projects."