CIDCO set to start work on Kondhane dam

The Kondhane dame project’s total land requirement (including non-forested area), is 400 hectares. At a per capita water requirement of 135 litres per day, the dam is expected to benefit a population of 1,850,000 people

Mumbai: The City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) is set to start work on construction of Kondhane dam on Ulhas river in Raigad district. Once completed the dam reservoir will be a source of water supply to the Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area (NAINA) city, the Navi Mumbai airport and neighbouring areas.

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It may be recalled that the construction of this dam has been embroiled in a corruption scandal of the magnitude of ₹60,000 crore with several politicians, including Ajit Pawar and Raigad MP Sunil Tatkare, being accused of wrongdoing. The expose that became known as Maharashtra’s irrigation scam shed light on inflated tenders and inflated artificially inflated construction costs. Most politicians named in the charge sheet have since been given a clean chit and are back in the government. Though, in the case of the Kondhane dam at least, the construction has been handed over from the irrigation department to CIDCO.

“The state cabinet had passed an order handing over the work from irrigation department to CIDCO in 2017 but not much happened since then. We have issued a tender now and hope to issue the work order before code of conduct for assembly elections comes into effect,” said CIDCO MD Vijay Singhal. “The dam will be constructed in next four years and it will take care of water needs of the new township for at least 30 years.” The construction cost of the dam had ballooned from ₹56.16 crore in 2006-2007 to ₹614 crore in 2012 and this became the focal point of the irrigation scam.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2017 revived the project and handed it over to CIDCO which paid ₹99 crore to the irrigation department to acquire it.

Anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania who exposed the irrigation scam said about the new development: “Earlier, the irrigation department had planned to construct an earthen dam while CIDCO will make a cement concrete one. The Government should ensure that unlike the last time the online tendering is not a farce.” In 2011, a Mumbai-based construction company had filed three tenders under three different names using the same IP address though and the cost of the dam saw a steep escalation once the tender was floated.

The Kondhane dame project’s total land requirement (including non-forested area), is 400 hectares. At a per capita water requirement of 135 litres per day, the dam is expected to benefit a population of 1,850,000 people.

At present, most of Navi Mumbai draws water from the Hetawane Water Supply Scheme, Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikran’s ’s Patalganga Project, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s Morbe Dam and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation-owned Barvi Dam.

As per current specifications, the Kondhane Dam project “envisages construction of 80- meter-high dam across River Ulhas at Kondhane Village with a full reservoir level at elevation. The proposed dam will displace two villages, Kondhane and Chochi, and 118 families are being to be relocated about 8 kms away. Other villages affected include Udewai, Kune and Nandgaon.