The water supply in south Mumbai will be augmented as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is all set to start reconstructing the 135-year-old Malabar Hill reservoir in January. The ₹450-crore project, which will take nearly seven to eight years, will increase the reservoir’s capacity from 147 MLD (million litres per day) to 191 MLD.
Vasant Gaikwad, deputy chief engineer, BMC’s water supply department, said, “It will take at least a month to obtain permissions for cutting trees, finalise drawings, and complete the technical process. Soon after, we can begin the work.”
The work will be done in phases because it is a service reservoir and also due to space constraints, the civic official said. “We have to ensure that we maintain the water flow and simultaneously reconstruct it without disturbing the supply in the island city. We will do it in phases. We will set up a tank with a low capacity and isolate each of the seven chambers present in the reservoir. Every time a chamber is demolished its water will be transferred to the new tank.”
The reservoir at present supplies water primarily to A and D wards comprising areas like Nariman Point, Cuffe Parade, Churchgate, Colaba, Girgaon, Nepean Sea Road, and the entire Malabar Hill area.
“With the rise in population the demand for water has gone up. So, we have decided to boost the capacity of the reconstructed reservoir to 191 MLD from 149 MLD,” Gaikwad said.
It is located at a hillock below Hanging Gardens and water is pumped through Vaitarna, one of the seven sources of water supply for Mumbai. It is also one of the first artificial water reservoirs built to meet the city’s day-to-day requirements.
A structural audit of the reservoir was conducted in 2019. The standing committee had in February passed a proposal to reconstruct it, much before the deliberative wing of the BMC became defunct in March. M/S Skyway Constructions has been appointed by the BMC to execute the project.