129 million litres a day to keep city afloat

The state will also float a tender in two months to divert 67.5 thousand million cubic feet to Mumbai from the Koyna dam.

After meeting NCP Mumbai president Narendra Verma and party corporators on Wednesday,water resources minister Ajit Pawar said they would release the additional 129 million litres per day (mld) from the Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna dams. The water will be released from the dams’ “carry-over” quota,which is usually kept to tide over a shortage after August 15.

The state has already been providing the BMC extra from the two dams,2,729 mld against the quota of 2,630 mld. Pawar said there would be no need now to impose the rotational 100-per-cent supply cut.

Pawar has asked additional municipal commissioner Anil Diggikar to initiate water audits to detect and plug leakages in the system. He stressed a crackdown on water theft. He urged citizens to use water sparingly and suggested use of wells and borewells for non-drinking purposes such as construction.

Work on diversion from the Koyna dam,Pawar said,would be undertaken by private parties on a build-operate-and-transfer basis. Supply would be to industries and industrial townships and the private party could recover the cost from them. This would reduce the use of civic water by these industries and leave more to spare for drinking.

Considering the rising population in the Mumbai-Thane belt,work on the Kalu,Pinjal and Shahi dams in Thane district would be undertaken with help from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA),while the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) would work on the Balganga dam in Raigad’s Pen taluka. The Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) will also build a dam at Harihareshwar in Raigad’s Srivardhan taluka.