BMC to acquire land in Palghar for dam project at ₹148 crore
In a major boost for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) much-delayed Gargai dam project, the civic body’s improvements committee on Saturday approved a proposal to sanction ₹148 crore to acquire land in the city’s outskirts to start the water supply project.
The Gargai Dam Project, planned on a land parcel spread across 849 hectares, will be constructed in the Oghade village in Palghar, on Gargai river, which is a tributary of Vaitarna river.
The project work involves construction of the dam, and connecting it to Modak Sagar dam, which already supplies water to Mumbai .
The money has been sanctioned to acquire around 426 hectares of private land for the project. Of the total 426 hectares, 170 hectares housing 185 families, will be completely affected by the project, while 256 hectares, where 434 families live, will be partially affected.
A senior civic official said, “The money will be given to the area collector, who will proceed with the land acquisition. The project affected people on the land parcel have voluntarily agreed to the project and thus the acquisition process should be completed soon.”
On an average, every house in Mumbai gets around three to four hours of water every day. The civic body manages to supply 3,750 million litres of water every day to the city’s homes, as against the demand of 4,200 million litres.
The authorities have set 2024 as the deadline for the project.
Once the Gargai dam project sees the light of the day, the city is expected to get 440 million litres of additional water every day.