BMC will consult IIT for wall along Mithi river
November 10, 2006
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has given a go-ahead to the Standing Committee on Friday to appoint the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay as project consultants for the 11 km-long wall to be constructed along Mithi river.
“After cleaning, de-silting and clearing the encroachments, we have to protect the river from facing damage again, for which we have to immediately build a wall along its banks,” explained Additional Municipal Commissioner Manu Kumar Srivastava, who put forward the proposal.
The Rs 17-lakh project will take off on December 1, 2006 and will work on the recommendations that will be given by IIT after studying the basic outline given by the BMC Storm Water Drains Department (SWD) in charge of the Mithi river project.
With the Phase-I of Mithi River Development which constituted of widening the river and creating a buffer zone on either side of it seeing completion, the administration had promptly put across an informal request of embarking on Phase II.
AS Nabar, Chief Engineer SWD, said, “The proposed Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) wall that falls under the purview of the BMC is 11 km-long and begins at CST Gate at Bandra-Kurla and ends at Powai. But we will build it in stages, the first being a stretch of 3 km from CST Gate to Air India covering the crucial areas.” The breath of the wall, he said will vary according to the depth of the water at different spots, which will be studied and designed by the consultants, but the width of the wall will be approximately 1 foot and 9 inches.
The BMC has also proposed a road that will run along the wall and green patches along the river. The total expenditure of the project — wall, road et at—- is estimated at Rs 182 crore and will be completed in one-and-a-half years. “We will be responsible for tackling only the 11-km stretch, while the remaining 4 km stretch of the river from CST to Kurla is with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA),” said Nabar.
Mithi river, development phases
The Mithi River is a confluence of tail water discharges of Powai and Vihar lakes. It originates at Powai and meets the Arabian Sea at Mahim Creek after covering about 15 km through Powai, Saki Naka, Kurla and Mahim. The garbage, sewage and industrial discharged from these areas along with the encroachments along it had caused the river to overflow and contribute to the July 27 floods in Mumbai following which the Mithi River Development project—MMRDA being the implementation authority—got floated in two phases. In Phase I, Rs 330 crore was spent for widening of river bed, dredging of the river, and removal of encroachments while a provision of Rs 1,284.35 crore has been made for Phase II that includes building of a security wall, bridges, road, solid waste management system and beautification of the river among other things.
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