Scrap Malabar Hill reservoir reconstruction project: Residents to Chahal

The panel submitted its interim report on January 8, recommending only functional repairs to the reservoir. However, there was a difference in opinion among the local representatives and professor Goyal and the other three IIT B professors

A section of residents has expressed concern over the functioning of the experts’ committee that is yet to submit its final report on the reconstruction of Malabar Hill reservoir and has demanded that the reconstruction project be scrapped. A letter in this regard was sent to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal on Thursday.

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The BMC had appointed an eight-member committee in November 2023 to study whether the reconstruction/repair of the 126-year-old reservoir is feasible, without affecting the daily water supply. The committee has four IIT Bombay professors from the departments of structural engineering, hydraulics, and geology; three members from local citizens along with deputy municipal commissioner (special engineering), CH Kandalkar. The professors on board are Alok Goyal, R S Jangid, Jothi Prakash and Dasaka Murthy, while the local representatives are civil engineers Vasudev Noori and A Seth, and architect Rahul Kadri.

The panel submitted its interim report on January 8, recommending only functional repairs to the reservoir. However, there was a difference in opinion among the local representatives and professor Goyal and the other three IIT B professors.

The letter signed by Zoru Bhathena, a Juhu Koliwada resident, along with Pervin Sanghvi and Khorshed Bharucha from Malabar Hill among others, said the interim report revealed that all committee members had unanimously agreed that the reservoir was in a very good structural condition and needed only minor repairs.

The interim report, the letter said, further revealed that Jangid had resigned from the committee citing a conflict of interest, while Jothiprakash and Murthy had concerns about how the reservoir could be repaired without disrupting the water supply.

Three days later, on January 11, the additional municipal commissioner (projects) sent a letter to the dean of IIT Bombay, wherein he unilaterally amended the terms of the appointment of the experts’ committee and asked IIT Bombay to analyse the views of the local representatives, it said.

The BMC letter called upon the IIT professors (only) to submit the final report, which would then be treated by the civic body as the final recommendations, the citizen’s letter said. “We understand that after this letter by the BMC, Jangid withdrew his resignation.”

The citizens’ letter alleged certain facts were suppressed. “...it is no secret that this entire reservoir reconstruction project has been based on a fallacious structural audit report in 2017. It is no secret that the BMC has consistently been giving out false stories that the reservoir is in a dilapidated and dangerous condition, when it is in an excellent structural condition. It is also no secret that minor repairs to the reservoir will cost less than ₹1 crore, whereas the reconstruction project has been sanctioned for ₹700 crore. It is no secret that the BMC’s hidden motives to reconstruct the reservoir are less than honourable.”