MUMBAI: With the liquidity crunch already delaying realty projects, there’s another reason why you should think twice before opting for projects in the development stage.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to ration water supply to upcoming projects.
While residential societies are presently supplied water at the rate of 90 litres per person a day (lppd), BMC’s hydraulic department has proposed supply of 45 lppd.
Making things worse, projects which need more than 2 lakh litres daily can forget about BMC water.
According to the proposal, the rationing will continue till completion of the Middle Vaitarna project in 2012. The project is expected to augment supply by another 455 million litres daily (mlds).
On October 22, DNA had reported how the global meltdown has left cash-strapped builders struggling to complete projects.
This, combined with the BMC’s move, will deal a huge blow to development in the city.
“Construction of more houses means an additional requirement of water, but supply quantity will not change for the next five years. To meet the additional demand, we will have to ration water,” said Pramod Charankar, deputy municipal commissioner, special engineering.
While BMC presently supplies 3,400 mld of water, officials estimate the requirement to be close to 4,250 mld. Charankar added that the department expected demand to swell by another 480 mld in the next four years.
The proposal, which has been cleared by the department, has to be approved by municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak.
Hydraulic engineer Madhukar Kamble clarified that the proposal would not affect supply to existing societies.
When asked if this would not affect the already slow pace of development projects, hydraulic engineer Madhukar Kamble said the BMC expects developers and societies to take up measures to recycle water.
However, not everyone in the BMC is convinced this is a right move. A senior BMC official said it was a knee-jerk reaction following criticism over water shortage. BMC has already decided to hire tankers to supply water free to areas suffering from a scarcity.