The much awaited 'Mithi River Clean Up' project of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to begin only after May this year. As the installation work of the customised recycling plant made by a Finland based RiverRecycle company, likely to take place in the fourth week of May, only after overcoming the challenges of logistical, labour issues and avaibility of technical experts amid Covid-19 pandemic. Besides, custom clearance, site preparation by taking measurements, depth analysis about the flow of river and floating waste the said installation work will be completed and thereafter the cleaning work shall begin. The machine was dispatched from the foreign country in October 2020 and has already reached India in January this year, informed MMRDA.
The Mithi River Clean up project is one the city's crucial project as the city.
faced unprecedented deluge on July 26, 2005 with rainfall of 944 mm in 24 hours coinciding with highest high tide of 4.48 metre resulting in severe flooding in the river's catchment area. It drew attention of the entire world.
The Mithi River originates from spillovers of Vihar and Powai Lake traverses through Mumbai's suburban and meets Arabian sea at Mahim Bay after flowing below 15 bridges for a length of 17.84 Km. Of which, 11.84 Km (Vihar Lake to CST Bridge on SCLR) is under the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and 6 KM (CST Bridge on SCLR to Mahim Creek) is under the jurisdiction of MMRDA. Following the instructions of Maharashtra government these implementing agencies are already carrying out the cleaning of the river regularly. The proposed clean-up project is expected to improve the river more.
The Finland manufactured recycling plant will be installed in the Mithi River, New Vakola Bridge mini confluence at BKC. The main objective of the project is to collect floating waste and recycle it. MMRDA is the facilitator for the project, which will review the performance and the outcomes of the river clean-up project regularly. The duration of the said project is of 18 months and is funded by Huhtamaki, a Finnish and leading consumer packaging company by giving Rs. 5 crore.
Marine Debris Partnership is a partnership between the United Nations Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL), the VTT Technical Research Centre of
Finland, RiverRecycle Oy of Finland and Earth5R Environmental Services Private Limited, Mumbai, India. Interestingly, the proposed Mithi River Clean Up of MMRDA is the first such river cleaning project in Mumbai, wherein global partners have been involved.
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