New sewage treatment plant in Thane to be ready by 2020

Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has started construction sewage treatment plant (STP) at Hiranandani Estate, which will treat 59 mld sewage.

Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has started construction sewage treatment plant (STP) at Hiranandani Estate, which will treat 59 mld sewage.

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The plant will benefit around 10 lakh people living in Ghodbunder. TMC has said the work of setting up of sewage network has been undertaken in the entire Ghodbunder area, the budget for which is ₹179 crore.

The sewage treatment plant at Kopri and Mumbra are the only two operational plants in the entire city, which has a population of around 23 lakh.

The work on six plants has been started. The plants, including the Hiranandani Estate one, will be operational by December 2020, said the sewage department. The Hiranandani Estate plant was inaugurated on Monday by civic chief Sanjeev Jaiswal. Jaiswal had proposed to start small sewage treatment plants in different wards of the city to form a strong sewage treatment network in the city. The new plant is one of them.

A TMC official said, “The work sewage treatment plant at Hiranandani Estate will treat sewage from Manpada, Brahmand, Patlipada, Waghbil, Anandnagar, Ovala, Majiwada, Kasarvadavli and Bhayandar Pada. The plant was funded from the Centre’s Amrut scheme. We will lay 90 kms of sewage pipeline at Ghodbunder.”

Pumping stations will also be constructed at five places and another STP will be built at Nagla Bunder which will have a capacity to treat 7mld sewage.

He said, “We have laid 39 km of the total 90 km network in the past five years. The work on four pumping stations is complete. The construction of fifth pumping station will begin next week. The cost of Hiranandani Estate STP is ₹40 crore while that of Nagla Bunder STP is ₹6.5 crore. The work on Nagla STP is in the final stage.”

Sewage generated from Ovala to Bhayander Pada will be treated at the Nagla plant while the sewage generated from Manpada to Ovala will be treated at Hiranadani Estate plant.

The department said the work on other STPs in city, including the ones at Vitawa and Kharegaon, is also completed.

Only house connections are to be fitted to these two plants in Kalwa. “The Kharegaon STP will be operational in three months. Six new STPs across the city, including the two at Ghodbunder, should be operational by December 2020,” he said.

The four STPs at Kharegaon, Vitawa, Kolshet and Majiwada have been funded under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme. “We have almost completed a sewage network of 212 km across the city and 90 km is still remaining. After completion of all STPs, we will have a 300km network of STPs, thus resolving the sewage treatment problem of the city.”

A city-based activist, who did not wish to be named, said, “TMC asks housing societies to treat their own waste, but its sewage treatment plant is progressing at a snail’s pace. TMC has been constructing the sewage network for over a decade while untreated sewage is polluting Thane creek. TMC pollution report has revealed that the creek is almost a dead water body.”