The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to construct a 7.2-km underground tunnel to integrate Mumbai’s first seawater desalination plant at Manori with the city’s existing water distribution network.
A proposal to award the design, construction, operation and associated infrastructure contract worth Rs 2,241.3 crore to Afcons Infrastructure Ltd will be placed before the civic standing committee on Wednesday. The tunnel project accounts for more than half of the estimated Rs 4,077 crore cost of the Manori desalination project.
The BMC aims to begin construction next month and complete the project within 45 months.
Following negotiations, Afcons Infrastructure emerged as the lowest bidder after reducing its initial bid to Rs 1,575 crore for the core construction works. The overall project cost includes GST, contingencies, operation and maintenance expenses, along with other related components.
The proposed tunnel will extend 4.6 km from the desalination plant at Manori to MNP Udyan in Charkop and a further 2.6 km to Mahavir Nagar in Kandivli. It will be excavated at a depth ranging between 104 metres and 128 metres using two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs), which will simultaneously begin excavation from the Manori and Mahavir Nagar ends.
According to civic officials, the project will also include three deep shafts at Manori, Charkop and Mahavir Nagar, a pumping station at Manori with an ultimate capacity of 400 million litres per day (MLD), transmission pipelines, product water storage tanks, valve chambers, SCADA integration for monitoring and control, and other supporting infrastructure.
While the pumping station has been designed to eventually handle 400 MLD, the first phase will initially operate with mechanical and electrical systems capable of processing 200 MLD, matching the capacity of the desalination plant’s first phase.
Officials said the project will allow nearly 190 MLD of water currently supplied from Bhandup to be diverted to other parts of Mumbai, improving the efficiency of the city’s water distribution system. Since water demand around Manori is relatively low, most of the desalinated water will be supplied to the western suburbs through the existing network.
The BMC has also issued a public notice inviting objections from citizens and property owners whose land falls along the proposed tunnel alignment.
Mumbai currently requires around 4,600 MLD of water daily, while the available supply stands at approximately 4,100 MLD. The desalination project has been planned to bridge this gap and reduce the city’s dependence on rain-fed lakes amid increasing climate variability and erratic monsoon patterns.
Source: The Times of India
