Mumbai: ‘Stoppage of water tankers could cripple city’

Rajesh Thakur, Secretary, Mumbai Water Tanker Association

The sudden stoppage of bulk water supplies through tankers in Mumbai in the last four days is going to cripple a large part of the city in the coming days, said the secretary of Mumbai Water Tanker Association Rajesh Thakur. He said its effect will be visible on commercial activities from Monday onwards.

Residential complexes apart, what else will be affected after the Water Tanker Association stopped services from February 9?
We have been supplying water to five star hotels, hospitals, long-distance trains, commercial establishments, etc. Most top city hotels are already facing the heat as they fear they will have to refuse guest bookings. The hospitality industry is going to face a direct impact. This means international guests coming to India will face major inconvenience. The tourism as well as business industry will face the cascading effects.

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How will this affect the Indian Railways?
Water is filled into long-distance trains at three stations - Mumbai Central, Kurla and CSMT.

We had been supplying water through tankers at these stations.
As we stopped our services recently, the BMC tankers had to do several rounds to refill train tanks, as the BMC has only
22 tankers.

What other things are likely to be affected?
Mumbai's requirement is more than 4,500 MLD. But, BMC supplies only 3,750 MLD. We have been working to meet the deficit. Metro work, Coastal Road project and other construction work is going to be badly hit now.