BMC forms new experts’ panel for Malabar Hill reservoir project

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has formed an eight-member committee, including experts from IIT Bombay, to oversee the reconstruction of the Malabar Hill reservoir. The committee will assess whether the reservoir can be repaired without affecting water supply and explore phase-wise reconstruction options. Suggestions will be accepted from the public and experts within a month.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has constituted an eight-member committee to oversee the work on the contentious Malabar Hill reservoir reconstruction project, a notice recently issued by the water supply department said.

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The panel will include four experts from IIT Bombay - professors Ashok Goyal, R S Jangid, Jothi Prakash and Dasaka Murthy -, local representative architect Rahul Kadri, two civil engineers and local representatives - Dr Vasudev Nori and A Seth -, and deputy municipal commissioner (special engineering), C H Kandalkar.

Incidentally, Goyal and Jangid had already submitted their opinions to BMC based on which the project was begun.

The scope of the new committee will be to find out if the existing reservoir can be repaired without constructing an alternative tank and without affecting the water supply, civic officials said. It will also explore whether phase-wise reconstruction is feasible without compromising on the disruption of water supply to citizens.

An email ID mhriit.suggestion@gmail.com will be created and published in newspapers. About 15 days’ time will be given to the experts’ panel from the date of publishing the ID to verify suggestions on merits.

The committee will then study and opine on any actionable proposal received from the local residents, public representatives and experts within a month, the officials said and added IIT Bombay will also be asked to suggest any other actionable plan.