Filthy Mithi to turn into tourist hub?

By 2011, you could be sailing on the Mithi, which would be surrounded by green walkways and people strolling on bridges connecting its bays.

By 2011, you could be sailing on the Mithi, which would be surrounded by green walkways and people strolling on bridges connecting its bays.

HT Image

Yes, the same filthy, stinking 18-km-long river that drains into the Arabian Sea at Bandra.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) plans to convert the river into a tourist hub by cleaning the pollutants and pumping in oxygen to give life to the dead Mithi as part of its Rs 1,667 crore project.

The process is expected to be complete by December 2010.

MMRDA commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said: “We want to convert the Mithi to a tourist hub by removing the sewerage and infuse oxygen into it using a device.”

The MMRDA has already started its two-month pilot project with help from the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute.

Engineers take water from the Mithi, pump in oxygen using a device and cylinders, and later pour it back into the river. This is also expected to revive the aquatic life in the river. The MMRDA plans to oxidize about 15 gallons of water every minute.

The pilot project will continue till February along a 6.2-km stretch between Kurla CST and Mahim Causeway. After two months, NEERI officials will examine and evaluate the impact on the river. If successful, they will draw a plan to draw oxygen from air and pump it into Mithi.

The remaining 11.8-km of the Mithi falls under the purview of the municipal corporation.

The BMC will start work — removing the shanties near Mithi and cleaning and desilting it — as part of the Rs 2,066 crore Mumbai Sewerage Disposal Project, which began in October 2006.