Mumbai: Desalination project still stuck in limbo

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The project to build a desalination plant in Manori, one of the two efforts of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to meet the city's increasing demand for water, is once again delayed by several months.

The plant had earlier been put on the backburner by current Deputy Chief Minister and former CM Devendra Fadnavis, citing high costs and impractical plans. When the Maha Vikas Aghadi came into power, former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had put the project back in the spotlight and fast-tracked. With Eknath Shinde becoming the CM, however, the project is no longer among the current government's priorities.

The civic body has been mulling over two projects to solve the city's water woes, one being the deslination plant and the other the Gargai dam in Palghar. While the Gargai dam could have provided 440 million litres of water a day, it also put over four lakh trees spread over 700 hectares of Tansa Wildlife sanctuary at risk. Hence, the MVA government had chosen the desalination plant, which was estimated to supply 200 million litres of water daily in its initial stage, which could be increased to 400 million litres a day at a later stage.

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The BMC had appointed IDE Water Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company, in February 2021 to prepare a detailed proposal. Later, in January 2022, the civic body engaged M/s SMEC India to evaluate the study and designs prepared by the Israeli firm. The report, which was supposed to be ready by June last year, was submitted in the third week of November. SMEC India has already approved the study and design submitted by the IDE Water Technologies Ltd. but five months down the line, tenders are yet to be floated for the project.

"We have received a nod from senior officials to start the procedure of the tender. But as this is first-of-its-kind project, it will take a few months to study and materialise the tender documents. It will then take another two to three months to float the tenders," said an official with the Water Supply Project Department.

The BMC had set aside Rs 200 crore for the project in its budget for 2022-23 and civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal, in his budget speech for the last financial year, had mentioned that the bids would be initiated by August 2022 via a global tendering system. The project, however, did not take off.

In its 2023-24 budget, the BMC, again, allocated Rs 200 crore but has not set any deadline. It is estimated to cost R3,500 crore, including R1,600 crore for setting up the facility and Rs 1,900 crore for maintenance of the plant for 20 years.