Richa.PintoMumbai: After prolonged back-and-forth, the Gargai dam project was cleared by BMC’s standing committee on Wednesday, despite opposition from Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress.While Shiv Sena (UBT) led by corporator Yashodhar Phanse pushed for desalination as an alternative to the dam, Congress argued that the proposal was premature and pointed out that rehabilitation of project-affected persons and tree transplantation has not yet been completed. BJP claimed credit for bringing down the project cost escalation from around 9% to nearly 2% above the estimate. Ganesh Khankar, its leader in BMC, said that there’s no denying that increasing the water quantum the city gets is the need of the day. “But there was also a need to ensure this project is not given highly above estimate. We have managed to do that by referring back the proposal in the past meetings and ensuring the contractor does the work almost on a par,” he said. Ashraf Azmi, Congress’s leader in BMC, contested this, alleging that despite claims of reduction, the project cost has not been effectively brought on a par.The project carries significant environmental implications, including the transplantation of around 3 lakh trees and compensatory afforestation across 658 hectares in Washim, Chandrapur and Hingoli districts. Additionally, villagers are proposed to be relocated to Devali in Wada taluka. Once commissioned, the dam will add 440 million litres a day to Mumbai’s water supply, making it the city’s first new reservoir since Middle Vaitarna became operational in 2014.
