Awaiting MoEF approvals, sewage disposal project pushed to next year

While the construction of the sewage treatment plant at Colaba is set to begin this month, work on six other plants at Worli, Bandra, Versova, Malad, Ghatkopar and Bhandup will not begin this year. “The project plan for the plants in Bandra and Worli have been completed and we just need the final norms for discharge into coastal water from the CPCB before we can begin the tendering process for the projects. We had expected the approvals to take a month at best. But now we will have to wait until the MoEF releases the norms for everyone. It is unlikely that the work will begin this year,” the official said.

While the plant at Lovegrove in Worli is likely to be a multi-storeyed structure that will process around 500 million litres of sewage on a daily basis to yield around 400 million litres of water, the one at Bandra Reclamation will yield around 320 million litres of treated water after processing 400 million litres of sewage.
The city will receive an additional 2,130 million litres of water from the seven sewage treatment plants in the second phase of the project, increasing the the drinking water supply. The non-potable water that will undergo tertiary treatment can be re-used by commercial users and even housing societies. It will also be available for use in fire hydrants, maintaining open spaces and for the railways.