Devendra Fadnavis convenes ‘final’ meeting on stalled Maval pipeline project

At The Idea Exchange event at The Indian Express office recently, the district collector had said that the issue had been “almost resolved.” He had said that the fears expressed by the farmers were being addressed in the light of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Autho-rity’s decision.

“The MWRRA had ruled that the PCMC can draw water through the closed pipeline for three months of the year from Pavana dam directly, and the rest of the nine months, water can be drawn from Pavana river at Ravet within the jurisdiction of PCMC,” Rao had said at the event. Farmers, who are completely opposed to the project, fear that once the pipeline is laid, they would not get any water and pollution in the river would increase.

Five years back, three farmers from Maval were killed in police firing after their agitation had turned violent. Since then, the project had remained stalled. The project involves construction of a closed pipeline directly from Pavana dam at Pavananagar in Maval taluka till PCMC limits-a distance of about 35 kms. So far, only about 4 km of the pipeline work has been completed. Five years back, the project was estimated to cost Rs 400 crore, and now it’s cost has apparently gone up to Rs 600 crore.