BMC
The civic body will pay IIT-Roorkee Rs 22 lakh, excluding GST, for reviewing the designs and related proposals prepared by its project consultant, Pednekar Associates. Asraf Azmi, Congress party leader and corporator in BMC, said, “Almost 82 trees in Malabar Hill are going to be impacted owing to this alternative reservoir, and yet there seems to be no talk on how the new reservoir area would be made greener. The latest plan envisages a three-tier reservoir with a storage capacity of 52 million litres on the western side of the existing reservoir. BMC, however, said it had redesigned the proposal with an effort to save 307 trees, seeking to address concerns over tree loss. Additional municipal commissioner Vipin Sharma said, “The number of trees proposed to be affected for the project has been drastically brought down from 389 to now 307. A civic official said that the last inspection saw the number of affected trees go up from 76 as marked earlier this year to 82 now as the garden department asked for a few smaller trees also to be considered.
The proposal was passed amid concerns raised by some objections from opposition members over the potential impact of the new project on trees. Malabar Hill has been known for its greenery for decades now. He was supported by MNS party leader in BMC Yashwant Killedar over the loss of green cover. The site currently has municipal staff quarters and a pumping station. The proposal also includes a new valve gallery. We have made efforts to keep the number of affected trees to minimal.
Mumbai: BMC Standing Committee on Wednesday approved the appointment of IIT-Roorkee to independently review the structural design and plans for a proposed alternative reservoir at Malabar Hill, nearly two years after the institute had assessed the existing reservoir and said it could be repaired rather than demolished and reconstructed.