Mumbai: Gargai dam affected villages give BMC the go-ahead

Six villages give written consent for resettlement; civic body to start the compensation process soon

A major hurdle in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) plan to increase water supply to Mumbai by constructing the Gargai Dam was cleared as the villages which come under the dam catchment area gave written consent for resettlement to the civic body.

Now BMC will conduct a drone survey of the villages and individual property and give compensation accordingly. Simultaneously, the BMC has started the procedure to prepare a design for the dam. Gargai Dam is being built on the Gargai river — a tributary of the Vaitarna. Once completed, the dam will add 440 million litres per day water supply to the cities. Currently, Mumbai gets 3,850 million litres water per day.

BMC is working on three projects to increase the supply - Gargai Dam (440 MLD), Pinjal Dam (865 MLD) and Daman Ganga-Pinjal River link project (1586 MLD) which will increase water supply by 2,891 MLD per day. "The dam will be spread across 849 hectares including forest land. Ongda, Khodala, Tilmal, Pachghar, Amle and Phanasgaon are the six villages that will have to be relocated. Around 426 families will be affected and compensation will be given as per norms," said a BMC officer said.

Shirish Dixit, BMC's deputy municipal commissioner of the Water Project Department told mid-day, "The villagers are happy with the rehabilitation plan and all six villages have given their written consent approved in Gram Sabha. We have received permission from the police as well, so now we can start the drone survey."

Last month, the improvement committee of the civic body approved Rs 148 crore to acquire land for Gargai Dam. In September, the standing committee passed the proposal to appoint a consultant to prepare a detailed report on damage to trees due to dam water and submit the report to Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) and Palghar district collectorate office for acquiring the necessary permissions.

As per the initial plans, the completion of work will take two years and in March this year, the BMC passed a proposal to appoint a government institute — Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) to study the tremors at the dam site while the Central Dam Organisation will evaluate the dam designs.

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