Mumbai: Senior BMC Officials are considering reducing the alternative Malabar Hill Dam suggested by IIT Roorkee as it will become redundant once the main reservoir is repaired and fully functional. They consult former hydraulic engineers for their opinion. A team from IIT Roorkee, appointed by BMC to assess the need to overhaul the Malabar Hill reservoir, recommended an alternative with a capacity of over 52 million litres until the repairs are completed.
The report submitted by IIT-Roorkee states: “In the present scenario, there is a shortage of usable storage capacity of 13.24 million litres. Repair work at one of the tanks — 1A, 1B and 1C — a new tank with a usable capacity (35.35 plus 13.24, or a total of 48.59 million liters) must be built. If tanks 2A and 2B need to be repaired, a usable capacity of 52.4 million liters would be required. The minimum usable capacity for a Alternative tank will be 52.41 million liters.”
The report mentions that while structural and non-structural damage was found in various parts of the reservoir, the overall condition of the reservoir is assessed to be largely satisfactory. “Compartments 2A, 2B and 1A were mostly intact, while structural damage was seen in 1B and 1C. Tank 1C showed some serious signs of corrosion of reinforcement in RCC elements,” it says.
A senior BMC official said efforts would be made to remove as few trees as possible for the repair work, but a piece of land would be required. “For this, we would try to ensure that as few trees as possible are affected. In the meantime, we are also looking into whether the size of the replacement tank could be further reduced as it may not be required after the repair work is completed.”
Malabar Hill MP Lodha announced in June that the original Rs 698-crore plan to rebuild the reservoir had been scrapped; instead, it would be repaired. Lodha said if the environment was not affected, which was one of the main concerns of local residents, work on improving infrastructure should not be stopped.
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