Guardian minister for the Mumbai suburban district Aaditya Thackeray, Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, principal secretary to Chief Minister Ajoy Mehta, additional chief secretary Ashish Kumar Singh, principal secretary to chief minister Vikas Kharge, BMC additional commissioner P Velrasu were present.
Chief Minister Thackeray said that after the onset of the Monsoon due to its delay, water cut of 10 to 15 per cent is effected in Mumbai during the months of May and June. He said that if sea water is converted into potable water people of Mumbai would not be troubled with this water cut. He said that many countries have successfully implemented such projects while many others are undertaking such desalination projects. Stating that for a mega-city like Mumbai, such a project would be beneficial, chief minister directed to continue the process for this project.
Stating that Maharashtra has a big coastline, the chief minister said that seawater for this project is available, and if the project is run on solar energy, it would reduce the cost. Pointing out that water quality at Manor was good, he said that infrastructure also can be made available easily. Stating that Government piece of land is available at Manor and road infrastructure is also available he said that urban locality is not in this near vicinity which would result in completing the project without any hurdles and people of Mumbai would receive uninterrupted water supply.
There is a proposal of setting up this project on 25 to 30 acres of land at Manor and it is suitable for capacity enhancement of this 200 MLD project. BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal in his presentation informed that a period of two and a half to three years would be required to complete this project.
