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BMC plans to start supply from Middle Vaitarna dam

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The BMC has decided to finally start supplying full quota from the middle Vaitarna dam, albeit in a phased manner.

The dam can supply 455 million litres of water daily to the city. It is expected to bridge the gap between Mumbai's water demand (4200 million litres daily) and the actual supply the civic body makes (3750 million litres).

The BMC had completed roller-compacted concrete (RCC) work of the dam in May 2012, and assured full-fledged supply from October 2013 after completion of auxiliary works, including that of constructing a bridge. The corporation has now said that it is in a position to start supplying water post-monsoon.

"We could not accumulate full capacity water in the dam in view of the incomplete work, until this season. But we intend to augment supply quantity gradually, even as the system of fetching and distributing water will be stabilized meanwhile," a senior civic official said.

The officer did not specify the deadline by which it plans to make optimum supply. "Earlier, the water management was such that we could have useful content available until June-end every year. We have made some system changes and we will now have useful content available until July-end in a year's time. When we do this, water from Middle Vaitarna will act as a cushion, giving us relief," the officer added.

The statement from the municipal authority comes in the wake of reports of the Centre giving nod for geo-technical survey of BMC's proposed Gargai dam, which is expected to supply 440 million litres water daily, upon completion. There is no clarity as to when the civic body will commission the survey, though. "We had received permission to carry out the survey last year (during UPA 2's tenure) itself. But when we got the minutes 3 months after the meeting, the content was different from what we had discussed. This ate into our time as we had to escalate the matter again before the Centre (NDA govt). However, that matter is over. We will appoint a consultant for the survey as soon as we receive the minutes of the latest meeting," said the official.

Though the civic body informed to have completed the work in record time, the actual work took at least 11 years to begin with impending environmental clearance and land acquisition eating into time.
The project had 44 families affected by it, while the corporation had to cut 1.75 lakh trees for the same. In order to compensate for the cutting of trees, the civic body planted 2 lakh trees in Beed district.
Dam spread over 684 hectares and with a height of 1042 meter (highest in the state), will supply 455 MLD water to city when filled to the fullest
The dam is built under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and its expenses are shared by Centre, state government and the BMC

As on August 13, 2014:
Total useful content available: 12,49,981 million litres
Total useful content available last year: 12,40,105 million litres
Total water dams can store annually: around 14,47,000 million litres

Lake
Maximum withdraw-able level (in metres)
Least withdraw-able level (in metres)
Present level(in metres)
Modak Sagar
163.15
143.26
163.05
Tansa
128.63
118.87
128.55
Vihar
80.12
73.92
79.90
Tulsi
139.17
131.07
139.20
Upper Vaitarna
603.51
595.44
602.08
Bhatsa
142.07
104.90
136.97
Middle Vaitarna
285.00
220.00
282.60

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