Urban News

Alavani had filed the application to enquire the water requirements of the area after over 15,000 families from around the airport shift in Kurla’s ‘L’ ward as a part of airport rehabilitation scheme. “The NOC for water supply into the Slum Rehabilitation Authority buildings has been suspended for the time being because of the water shortage,” said Assistant Engineer (L ward), Arjit War. According to War, the suspension of the NOC can only be revoked as and when the water situation improves in the area.

The first phase of the slum rehabilitation scheme is being undertaken by Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) to rehouse those living on airport land. Over 80,000 families have been living in slums and encroached upon 276 acres of airport’s land. According to the RTI reply, Kurla’s ‘L’ ward has a total of 22,596 domestic connections, 2,118 commercial and 426 industrial connections. While the total water requirement of the area is 300 million litres per day (MLD), the actual supply here is between 150 and 200 MLD leading to acute water shortage for the L ward residents. According to the reply, there would be an additional requirement of 38,23,365 litres water per day in the area after the residents shift.

“Only if monsoons are good this year will the situation improve. Without the NOC, new occupants may not be able to shift here. So the shifting also could be delayed till after the monsoons,” Alavani added.

“Kurla is in a very bad shape and there is acute water shortage. If new connections are given, it will further aggravate the crisis,” said BJP corporator Sitaram Tiwary from L ward. According to Tiwary, when additional 8,000 families were rehabilitated to Sangharsh Nagar in Chandivali (which is located between Saki Naka and Powai) three years ago, the BMC had not increased the water supply of that area.