WB to review sewer project

April 6: A two-member World Bank team is arriving in city on Wednesday to review the Mumbai Sewerage Project which has been plagued by delays and massive cost overruns. The project launched 15 years back is still nowhere near completion and its cost has risen from Rs 500 crore to Rs 2000 crore.

During their stay in Mumbai on April 8 and 9 the WB managing director (operations), Caio Koch-Weser and the WB country director (India), Edwin R Lim, would visit various project sites, including the construction site of a pumping station and the marine outfall at Bandra. They would be accompanied by director, Ministry of Economic Affairs, R S Sharma, and additional secretary, Govind Rajan.The ambitious sewerage project, when commissioned, would have the capacity to handle the large volume of sewage generated in the city everyday. It would also prevent clogging of the storm water drains during monsoons and subsequent flooding in the low-lying areas of Sion, King’s Circle and Lower Parel.

The project had run intoserious trouble a few years back when the WB had discontinued its funding following allegations of corruption and unsatisfactory work. With its credit lines sealed, the work on the project had stopped for several months. Though BMC then had made bold statements about raising funds on its own, later a high-level government team persuaded the WB to resume the funding.

The visiting WB team would have a busy schedule in city. A briefing by BMC officials on Wednesday morning would be followed by a presentation. After the site visits, the team would be joined for lunch by senior officers of the level of secretary and principal secretary of the state government and the BMC. Koch-Weser would address a press meet in the evening followed by a dinner with the HDFC’s MD , Deepak Parekh.