THE BRIHANMUMBAI Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received the nod from National Textile Corporation Limited (NTCL) for laying an underground pipeline on the Tata Mills premises, which will help expedite the agency’s plans to construct an underground water tank at Hindmata to prevent flooding. The NTCL has, however, asked the BMC to pay Rs 8.58 crore as charges for using the mill premises. In the permission letter, the NTCL said, "Laying of a pipeline of 1600mm diameter, three meter width and 350 meter in length (including working space) may be permitted on receipt of consideration of Rs 8.56 crore.” The BMC is constructing underground water tanks below Pramod Mahajan Udyan at Dadar (West) and St Xavier Ground at Parel to store excess rainwater and prevent flooding at Hindmata, which has been one of the worst affected areas in Mumbai. The civic body has already begun the work of construction of tanks and laying of stormwater drains to channel rainwater to these tanks. The BMC needs to lay a 1,600-mm diameter drainpipe covering a distance of 650 meters from Hindmata to Pramod Mahajan Park. "We have received the permission from the NTCL to lay the pipeline for the project on Tuesday," said P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner. BMC officials said while the tank at Pramod Mahajan Udyan will have the capacity to store 60,000 cubic meter water, the Xavier ground tank will store 30,000 cubic meter water. The BMC is spending about Rs 135 crore on the underground water tanks.
