BMC's Ghatkopar pool closed to fix 'leakage', members cry foul

The only functional swimming pool in eastern suburbs — in Ghatkopar — will remain closed for a week because of the alleged apathy of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC). While members of the pool had complained that the pool had fungus and germs owing to a chlorine shortage, civic official said the pool was shut to fix a ‘leakage’.

“There are regular complaints about filtration mechanism at the pool. Over the past month, the number of grievances have gone up. The problem persists despite raising the issue repeatedly with the concerned senior civic officials,” said Pravin Chheda, Congress corporator from Ghatkopar and member of the civic standing committee. Municipal officials though refuted the claims and added the pool will be shut to repair ‘leakage’. The officials though admitted there was shortage of chlorine for maintaining the pool.“The filtration mechanism is such we can’t treat water if the levels are not up to desired level. We will observe the levels over the next few days  and once the leakage problem is fixed, we should have the plant functional. This should take a week,” said Kisan Memane, manager of the pool.