Mumbai: Marking a key stage in the development of the Middle Vaitarna project, the BMC has awarded the contract for a Rs 292-crore water treatment plant to French company Degremont Suez. Work on the project is likely to begin by the end of this month and will result in Asia’s largest water treatment plant at Bhandup.
The Middle Vaitarna project funded by the World Bank is proposed to add 455 million litres of water to Mumbai’s existing daily supply. The new plant will have a capacity to treat about 1,000 million litres water per day. Tenders were floated by the BMC for the project after acquiring the approval of the standing committee about four months ago.
Three bidders came forward and Degremont was chosen as it was the lowest bidder and has a history of carrying out similar projects in Mumbai. A team from the company will meet officials in the civic body this week and complete the formalities.
“The additional water that will come out of the middle Vaitarna will be treated in this plant, which will be located adjacent to the existing one in Bhandup,’’ said additional municipal commissioner Manu Kumar Shrivastav. “We gave the company suggestions on how to execute it after consulting the firm Dalal Mott MacDonald (DMM). We also asked Degremont to give suggestions. The company has its own patented technology which would be used, and both our suggestions as well as their recommendations would be amalgamated,’’ he added.
The project would be based on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standards. The French company will carry out the construction of the plant over roughly three years and the next four years will be required to operationalise it.
According to Pramod Charankar, deputy municipal commissioner, special engineering, owing to turbidity in the water in Mumbai, process of treating it by allowing it to settle is most critical. “At this stage, alum is added to the water, froth gets formed and then the water settles. After that is the process of filtering and chlorinating,’’ said Charankar. “We will have an additional pumping station and reservoir and then get connection to the usual distribution pipes,’’ he added.
SOME LIQUID FACTS
Mumbai was the first city in India to receive piped water supply in 1860. The city’s water supply system (3,200 mld) is among the largest in Asia
Main sources of water supply (Bhatsa, Tansa, upper Vaitarna, Vihar, Tulsi, Modak Sagar) are about 110 km from the city
The distribution network has more than 4,000 km of mains
HOW THE PROCESS WORKS
Additional water from middle Vaitarna will be first settled, then treated and chlorinated at the plant. It will then go to a pumping station and a reservoir from where it will be connected to the usual distribution links
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment