Mumbai: After a long wait of 16 years, the BMC’s ambitious project of a desalination plant to convert seawater into potable water will become a reality. A tender will soon be floated to set up the plant on 12-hectare land in Manori village abutting the sea in the western suburbs.
The plant is expected to be functional in the next four years and will process 200 million litres of water per day (MLD). Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) P Velrasu confirmed the development.
Officials also said that the plant’s capacity could later be increased to 400MLD, if needed. The project is estimated to cost Rs1,600 crore and maintenance for the next 20 years will cost another Rs1,920 crore.
The project has been undertaken to develop an alternative water source for the city due to changing patterns of rainfall. Accordingly, a consultant was appointed in January 2022 to study and evaluate the designs and details submitted by an Israeli company (IDE Water Technologies Ltd).
As per civic officials, the company had prepared a detailed project report (DPR) for a set-up in Manori. After scrutiny of the DPR and considering a few suggestions and objections given in the report, work on the tender is currently underway. The bid might be invited in the next two to three weeks, a civic official said.
The project was first mooted in 2007 after a State Government-appointed high-level committee suggested setting up desalination plants in Mumbai. The BMC had initiated the process to set up two such plants – one in south Mumbai and another in the western suburbs in 2016.
However, the proposal was cancelled due to high cost and land issues. It was revived in October 2020 when former Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray showed interest in the project.
