For 5 months, 3 million litres of water for Mumbai went down a drain daily
Developer in Thane allegedly diverted 3 million litres of Mumbai's potable water every day into a gutter for five months.
A developer, who had damaged a water supply tunnel while digging a borewell for an IT park in Thane, allegedly diverted three million litres of Mumbai’s potable water every day into a gutter for five months.
This comes at a time when Mumbai is facing a 15% cut for a month until April 30 when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is scheduled to fix the rupture. Meanwhile, residents from some wards are carrying morchas to local BMC offices over the current water crisis.
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Documents of communication with the BMC and the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) show that Square Feet Real Estates, the developer, had been dumping 3 million litres daily (MLD) of water in the drain - from the borewell hole using pumps via two pipes - daily since November 2022. HT has the copies of those documents in its possession.
Last week, the BMC imposed a ₹75-crore penalty (including ₹13 crore towards repairs and ₹5 crore for water wastage) on the developer, and this has been intimated to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, the planning authority in that zone in Thane. As per rules, whenever such a damage occurs, the penalty is four times the actual cost of repairs and wastage.
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What is astounding, however, is that the BMC has been aware of the issue all along. As per the documents obtained by activist Bharat Kumar Pisat under the RTI Act, the BMC had on November 8, 2022, come to know about the rupture caused by the developer while illegally digging a 100-metre-deep borewell.
An official from the BMC’s hydraulic department admitted that they knew that water had been wasted for months.
“We have now imposed a ₹75-crore penalty on Square Feet Real Estates. That is quite a hefty amount and it is a stringent action. Unless we know the exact amount of water that has been diverted, we cannot arrive at the actual cost of wastage,” the official, who refused to be named, said.
Despite several attempts via calls and text messages, the developer could not be reached for a comment.
The TMC, in its letter to the developer on December 16, 2022, said,” At Wagale Division Committee Campus road no.16, at plot number C/40, the work of a new IT Park is under way. Due to the need of water for construction, work of digging borewells on the east side has caused a massive leakage of potable water from the BMC’s water tunnel, which is 100 metres underground, and it is being released in a gutter on road no. 16. As a result, drinking water is getting wasted while the gutter has choked and the road is waterlogged. It has also damaged the road making it highly prone to accidents.”
The developer was asked to take necessary measures failing which the TMC would initiate a legal action.
The matter came to light when RTI activist Pisat noticed a leak from the tunnel, and it was due to his effort that the BMC initiated repair works in the last week of March.
On February 27, the BMC wrote to Pisat that work of appointing a contractor was still under process as the specialised nature of repair works had resulted in lack of response to the tender.
A BMC official said the hydraulic department that maintains the tunnel, and the water supply department (WSD) were involved in plugging the rupture. “The tunnel was damaged on November 8. The hole that needs to be plugged is 100-metre deep while the tunnel’s diameter is 5.5 metres. We had to first empty the tunnel which supplies water to the entire Mumbai city.”
The supply was then diverted through alternative water mains like Vaitarna (2,750MM), Upper Vaitarna (2750MM), and new Tansa main (3,000MM), the official said and added that WSD got response to the tender in the second attempt in March following which repair works began.
However, the BMC has still not filed a complaint with the police whereas an FIR was registered on March 28 based on a complaint lodged by Pisat. HT has a copy of the FIR.
“The BMC had visited the police station but the police somehow didn’t take its complaint,” the civic official claimed.
In its internal records of November 11, 2022, the BMC had stated that on November 8, civic officials along with the BMC’s security department went to Shree Nagar police station, Thane, to lodge a complaint against the developer. But the police refused to take the complaint on grounds that there were no sections in the IPC that could cover such a damage to the tunnel, the records said.
“Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984 is apt to cover the damage. An opinion of law officer is sought to apply relevant sections. It is felt that an FIR may help contest a legal battle that the BMC can wage to claim for wastage of water and to recover the financial loss on the tunnel repairs,” the BMC records said.
Pisat said there should be an FIR against the civic officials concerned for not taking up repair works earlier and also for not taking stringent action against the builder immediately.
“If the police can take cognisance of my complaint, why can they not take the BMC’s complaint? There should be a criminal complaint against civic officials for ignoring such an important issue for five months and for not appointing until February a contractor for repair works stating that it is a specialised work which needs a specialised contractor. They have deprived Mumbai citizens of drinking water by allowing the builder to waste water in a gutter where many areas are facing more than a 15% water cut. Now, Mumbai citizens are grossly inconvenienced due to their delay in action,” Pisat said.
Around 50% work on dewatering is completed and for isolation, the entire tunnel will be dewatered and technicians will then enter the tunnel to repair it.
“Parts of Mumbai are struggling to get adequate water because it is being supplied through surface transportation instead of through the tunnel which was smooth,” the civic official pointed out.