If all goes according to the plan, the BMC will start constructing a new water treatment plant at the Bhandup complex in 2024. With an estimated cost Rs 2,000 crore, the project has been undertaken to replace the existing facility, said to be Asia's largest and built in 1979, given its dilapidated condition. While this plant has filtration capacity of 1,910 million litres per day (MLD), the new one will be able to treat 2,000 MLD water on a daily basis. A filtration plant purifies the quality of water to make it suitable for potable use like irrigation and drinking.
Tender to open this week
The civic body has already floated a tender for the project and the last date to submit bids is December 28. “The existing treatment plant is 45 years old, and has been fully utilised. The new facility will be ready in the next four years. We have sorted all the technical queries raised by the prospective bidders. The tender will be opened by this week while the work is expected to start at the beginning of 2024,” said a civic official. Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) P Velrasu said that the old plant will continue to function until the new one comes up. In its 2023-34 budget, the BMC made a provision of Rs350 crore for the project. Its estimated cost of Rs2,000 crore includes 15 years of operational and maintenance costs, said the civic sources.
New filtration plant was commissioned in 2014
The BMC daily supplies 3,900 MLD of water to the city, which is purified at the Bhandup complex and Pise. Water supply to the major part of the city comes through the Bhandup plant. With the rise in demand for water supply, a new filtration plant with a capacity of 900 MLD was commissioned in 2014.
