Mumbai: The BMC has floated a tender for constructing a dam on the Gargai river in Palghar district, a project under discussion for nearly a decade. Planned as Mumbai’s eighth water source, the dam is expected to add 450 Million Litres per day (MLD) to the city’s supply at an estimated cost of Rs. 3,040 crore. The initiative follows the Middle Vaitarna Dam project completed in 2014.
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A senior official stated that the project entails constructing a 69-metre-tall dam and a 1.6-km water supply tunnel with a 2.2-metre diameter. Water from the Gargai reservoir will be channelled through this tunnel—cut across the hillock separating the two basins—to the Modak Sagar reservoir, from where it will be supplied to Mumbai. The BMC also plans to develop a permanent guest house, an auditorium and an office-cum-administrative complex along the reservoir’s periphery.
The proposed dam inside the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary will occupy 658 hectares of forest land. Two villages—Ogda and Khodada—will be fully submerged, while Pachghar, Tilmal, Phanasgaon and Amle will be partially affected. Project-affected persons will be relocated to 400 hectares of Forest Development Corporation land in Devli taluka, Palghar district.
"The project will impact about 3.1 lakh trees, and although the BMC has secured clearances from the National Wildlife Board, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) and the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM), it will require additional approval from the Union Environment Ministry due to the scale of tree felling," an official said. The civic body has also secured land in Chandrapur district for compensatory afforestation, with demarcation completed last year. Once initiated, the project is expected to take six years to complete, he added.
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