Tender floated for 39-km cycling track along pipeline

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has floated a Rs. 137.28 crore tender for the proposed 39-km long cycling track and walkway along the Tansa water pipeline – which will extend from the outer limits of Mulund to Sahar Road in Andheri East.

The Rs 137.28 crore project includes not only a cycling track and walkway but also has service road in asphalt, developing landscape, construction of garden with horticulture and earthwork, electrification work and modification of existing stormwater drains. However, trees affected by the alignment of the project will have to be removed by the contractor by obtaining permissions from the Tree Authority.

The project was proposed in 2016 on the space holding encroachments on the 10-metre buffer zone along the Tansa pipeline. The Bombay High Court, in 2009, had ordered the BMC to remove all encroachments along the pipeline.

However, removal of encroachments is a challenge for BMC as over 16,000 structures were to be demolished. Of these, around 30 per cent were done until June 2017 with latest being the demolition at the Garib Nagar slums in Bandra East.

PASSING THROUGH

• The 39-km Tansa water pipeline — in two parts from Mulund to Dharavi and Ghatkopar to Sion — passes through ten administration wards including Sion, Mahim, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Chembur, Bandra East and Andheri East.