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Mumbai’s first desalination plant gets BMC panel’s go-ahead
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plan to set up a desalination plant in the city received an in-principle approval from the civic standing committee on Monday
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plan to set up a desalination plant in the city received an in-principle approval from the civic standing committee on Monday. The move will allow the civic body to make the required decisions to construct the project, subject to further approvals from the committee at each stage, as required. The standing committee approved the formation of a special committee under the chairmanship of the civic commissioner to oversee the project.
It also approved the administration’s request to allow IDE Water Technologies to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for the desalination plant, after the firm submitted an unsolicited proposal to the civic body for this project.
“IDE Water Technologies submitted an unsolicited proposal to BMC for this project. As the original proposer of the project, BMC has asked the firm to submit a project report. Following this, competitive bidding will take place via the Swiss challenge method, for construction of the project. A DPR is expected to be completed in eight months, after which it is likely to take 30 months to construct the plant,” a statement issued by BMC on Tuesday read.
In the Swiss challenge method, if an interested party submits a project proposal, the government publishes the report, and invites bids for other interested parties, either to come up with better ideas execute the project based on the existing plan.
After the standing committee’s permission to appoint a panel under the chairmanship of civic commissioner under the Maharashtra Infrastructure Development Enabling Authority Act 2018, BMC will submit a proposal to the state to form the committee for the project, and a government resolution will be issued by the state for its formation.
Mumbai has witnessed 10-20% water supply shortage in the past few years, owing to delay or uneven rainfall. The city receives water from seven lakes located on the outskirts. While the availability of water in these lakes depends on the rainfall in their catchment areas, the city’s water demand has only increased, and will continue to rise in the future.
A committee of experts appointed by BMC in 2016 had submitted its report — Towards Equitable and 24x7 Water Supply for Greater Mumbai — in December 2018. The report concluded that by 2041, Mumbai’s demand for water is estimated to go up from the present 3,750 million litres per day (MLD) to 6,424 MLD.
To meet the growing demand, BMC decided to construct a desalination plant with a capacity of 200 MLD of water, which can be expanded to 400 MLD per day in the future.
The total cost of the project, is estimated to be ₹1600 crore for constructing a plant with a capacity of 200 million litres, and ₹1920 crore to upgrade it to 400 million litres in the future.
