Mumbai civic body awaits forest and wildlife clearances for Gargai dam even after 4 years

Kasara (Thane), Oct 3 (PTI) Almost four years after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation applied for forest and wildlife clearances from the Union government for its Gargai dam project, it is still awaiting the final nod.

The project, estimated to cost Rs 3,105 crore and necessary for meeting Mumbai's rising water demand, has received all other approvals, said a BMC official earlier this week.

The forest and wildlife clearances are necessary as a part of the dam would be located in the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary in neighbouring Palghar district, he said.

Approvals from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the National Committee of Seismic Dam Safety have already been secured, and remaining clearances are expected in the next few months, the BMC official said.

Preparations for floating tenders are also ongoing, he said.

"We submitted applications to the Union forest and wildlife departments in 2020 and replied to their queries. We are hopeful of receiving approvals soon," the official said during a study tour of the Middle Vaitarna dam in Thane district on Wednesday.

The construction of the Gargai dam is expected to take at least three to four years. Upon completion, it will supply 440 million litres per day (MLD) of water to Mumbai. Currently, the metropolis receives 3,950 MLD water, short of its actual requirement of 4,463 MLD.

The BMC's Water Supply Projects department estimates that by 2040, the water demand of the country's financial capital will rise to 6,900 MLD. Keeping this in mind, the civic body has planned to construct dams on the Gargai, Pinjal and Daman Ganga rivers, as recommended by the Chitale committee in 1996.

Gargai is a tributary of the Vaitarna river. The BMC last constructed a dam -- Middle Vaitarna -- on the Vaitarna in 2014. Located between the Upper Vaitarna and Modak Sagar dams, it supplies 455 MLD of water to the city.

Officials said Gargai dam is an "easily doable" project as it will be just two km away from Modak Sagar, and connected by a tunnel. This connection will do away with the need to lay new pipelines.

Being a water supply project, the Gargai dam does not require environmental clearances, officials claimed. The project involves rehabilitation of six villages, two of which will be fully submerged, but there has been no opposition from the affected communities, said an official.

Of the estimated cost of Rs 3,150 crore, Rs 1,500 crore will be spent on constructing the dam using roller-compacted concrete technology, which speeds up construction by using less cement and more fly ash.

To reduce Mumbai's reliance on traditional water sources, the BMC is also developing alternative sources, and has invited bids to set up a desalination plant of 200 MLD capacity at Manori in the western suburbs.

But despite extending the bid submission deadlines multiple times, the BMC has not received any response to the tenders so far. PTI KK KRK