Creating dedicated parking lot at Haji Ali and exploring the construction of a helipad on the Coastal Road and providing pothole free roads to Mumbai citizens is the diktat from the Mahayuti government to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
BMC is carrying out infrastructure work on water supply projects, sewage projects, and health department projects worth about R1,41,356 crore. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday took a review meeting with BMC officials about the ongoing projects. In the meeting conducted at Vidhan Bhavan on Tuesday, Fadnavis instructed BMC to construct a parking lot with a capacity of 1200 vehicles at Haji Ali.
“Now that the work of the Coastal Road is almost complete, the civic body should build a parking lot in the area of this road,” Fadnavis mentioned during the meeting and instructed the civic authorities to ensure completion of the project on time. In the same meeting, Shinde urged the BMC officers to consider constructing a helipad on the Coastal Road.
Besides Coastal Road, Shinde, who heads the urban development ministry, urged the Mumbai civic administration to expedite the speed of road work for a pothole-free Mumbai. The minister further emphasised that the current concreting of the city roads should not cause any inconvenience to citizens during the monsoon season. “80 per cent of the total roads in Mumbai are pothole-free,” Shinde added.
BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, Additional Chief Secretary Urban Development department–Asim Gupta, Milind Mhaiskar and other senior IAS officers from Mantralaya were present in the review meeting. Currently, BMC is working on cement concrete work on 700 km of roads. After completion of these works, around 2000 km of roads in Mumbai will be made of cement concrete.
BMC is carrying out projects worth about R1,41,356 crore which includes concreting of about 700 km of roads, Versova to Bhayander, Coastal Road, Goregaon-Mulund link road, Gokhale bridge, Vikhroli bridge, Carnac bridge, Sion bridge, Belasis bridge, Mahalaxmi bridge, Madh-Versova bridge, Dahisar, Poisar, Oshiwara river revitalisation and Mithi river sanitation projects, as well as water supply projects. It also includes seven sewage treatment plants at Versova, Malad, Bhandup, Ghatkopar, Versova sewage tunnel, Mithi river package sewage tunnel and priority sewage tunnel.
Key project aimed to meet city’s water needs back on cards
>> Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis urged the BMC officials to speed up the Gargai project as it is important to meet the future need of water supply for Mumbai, especially with the ongoing vertical development of the city. “Complete the rehabilitation process and other works to ensure that this key project starts immediately,” Fadnavis instructed during the meeting.
>> The Gargai dam, located within the Tansa wildlife sanctuary, planned by the BMC, is located near the Modak Sagar dam, in the Palghar district, 110 KM away from Mumbai.
>> Currently, Mumbai requires 4463 MLD of water, but only 3950 MLS is supplied. The Gargai project, worth around R5000 crore, is expected to supply 440 million litres of water daily to the city and can help reduce the supply-demand gap.
>> During his first stint as chief minister of Maharashtra in 2015, Fadnavis had strongly backed the project. The pet project was later halted by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on the pretext of saving a large number of trees as the project involved deforestation.
