A correspondent mailbag@ mid- day. com IN a city which is perennially water starved, the requirement at the moment is to not waste a single drop. Considering this, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( BMC) has come up with a water supply vision for the next decade. It plans to construct a tunnel that would take the water overflowing from Vihar Lake to the Bhandup Complex Water Treatment Plant or Airoli Creek. This would also help increase the water supply to the city from 3,850 millions of litres per day ( MLD) to 5,800 MLD. In the budget, the civic body has mentioned, u201c During monsoon, if high tide is accompanied by heavy rainfall, the water overflowing from Vihar Lake is discharged in Mithi River and leads to a flood- like situation.

Tender for doing a feasibility study of transferring the overflowing water to Bhandup Complex Water Treatment Plant or Airoli Creek has been invited. A budget provision of R 2.69 crore has been proposed for this work.u201d As the need for drinking water is going to increase in the coming years, the BMC plans to undertake development of the Gargai Project. Once completed, the Gargai Project will provide 440 MLD of water to Mumbai. A total of R 503.51 has been allocated for the project.u201d u201c Due care is being taken to rehabilitate project affected people, including providing cash compensation and a job per family as per government norms. A provision of R 199.40 crore has been made for rehabilitation works,u201d said the BMC in its budget.