BMC clears felling of 184 trees for ₹4,124cr Bhandup water plant

The new 2,000-million-litres-a-day (MLD) plant is being built alongside the existing 1,910-MLD facility at the BMC’s Bhandup Complex

Mumbai: As the BMC moves to replace its more than four-decade-old water treatment plant at Bhandup, 420 trees will be affected by the ₹4,124-crore project, with the civic Tree Authority on Monday approving the felling of 184 trees and transplantation of another 150.

BMC clears felling of 184 trees for ₹4,124cr Bhandup water plant

The new 2,000-million-litres-a-day (MLD) plant is being built alongside the existing 1,910-MLD facility at the BMC’s Bhandup Complex. The project is expected to be completed by July 2028 and is aimed at allowing the civic body to eventually replace or undertake major repairs to the ageing plant without disrupting the city’s water treatment operations.

The project, being executed by Welspun Enterprises, has a construction period of 48 months,

followed by 15 years of operation and maintenance by the company.

The existing plant, commissioned more than four decades ago, treats a large share of the water supplied from the city’s seven reservoirs. Senior civic officials said the ageing structure had become weak and required major repairs, with parts potentially needing to be rebuilt.

But shutting down the existing plant is not an option as it has to continue treating water from the reservoirs. The new facility is therefore being constructed alongside the old one to ensure that water treatment can continue while the BMC eventually undertakes major rehabilitation or replacement work.

The trees covered by Monday’s approval are required for various project works, including pipeline interconnections, roads, overflow drains, temporary roads and precast drains. A senior civic official said the trees had emerged as a major impediment to the project.

The civic body had previously obtained tree permissions in four phases. Phase 1 involved permission to fell 25 trees, while Phase 2 covered the felling of 21 trees and transplantation of four. Both permissions were granted on March 25.

Phase 3 involved felling nine trees and transplanting 15, while Phase 4 involved felling 12 trees and transplanting 12. Permissions for both were granted on April 9. Garden department officials said these four phases were separate from Monday’s Tree Authority approval. For the entire project, 239 trees will be felled and 181 transplanted, taking the total number affected to 420.

The civic body plans to compensate for the loss by planting 4,720 trees in Badlapur. This includes 3,103 in lieu of the trees felled and 1,615 in lieu of those transplanted.