THANE: The 110 Million Litres per Day (MLD) water supply project of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has come as a boon for the city. This

newspaper had yesterday reported about how this project is saving cost by minimising the borrowing of water from other bodies to meet the demands of the city. Fully commissioned on August 22, this much-awaited project has not only got the water flowing into the city, but also ensured that there is no wastage of waters from its filtration plant at Temghar. The project is saving enough waters a day to meet the needs of around 50,000 persons every day.

The interesting fact came to light recently when the project began functioning in full capacity. Earlier, a part of the project comprising 40 MLD had been commissioned. The recent commissioning was for the second phase of the mega water project comprising supply of 70 MLD of waters. Under the project, the TMC is lifting raw waters from the Bhatsa Dam on Ulhas River in Pise Village of Kalyan Taluka and bringing it to its plant at Temghar Village for filtration. The filtered waters are then supplied to the main water supply system of TMC for final distribution to the water consumers.

As per information, the existing filtration plant of the Shahad Temghar (STEM) Water Supply Authority at Temghar used to lose around 10 MLD of waters due to wastage. The wastage used to occur due to accumulation of mud in the pumps meant to filter the water at the plant. The mud mixed 10 MLD waters had to be released into the gutters to allow fresh filtered waters to flow through the pump.

The 110 project has taken care of the trouble in its newly-erected plant at Temghar. The new filtration plant has been fitted with two recycle pumps to take care of the mud mixed waters. The mud mixed waters are released into the two pumps to recycle them into fresh filtered waters. The recycled 10 MLD waters are then release into the city for final distribution along with the remaining 100 MLD of treated waters.

"The recycle pumps have ended the possibility of 10 MLD wastage of mud mixed waters from the filtration plant. The quantity is sufficient to meet the water needs of 50,000 residents every day," KD Lala, the City Engineer, informed Thane Plus. He claimed that as a result of the plugging of the 10 MLD waste the 110 MLD plant is able to supply the entire 110 MLD treated waters to the city.

Lala further added that the water project will save around Rs 8 crore per year on account of recycle of 10 MLD waters for use. The Rs 98 crore project will be able to recover the entire cost of the project only from the savings on recycle of waste waters in the next twelve to thirteen years to come. The life of the project is around 50 years.

It may be noted that the TMC took up the mega project to end the water woes in the city as well as reduce its dependence upon state owned water suppliers like BMC, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and STEM water supply authority. The three organizations provide around 270 MLD of waters to the city while the TMC arranges for around 120 MLD from its own 100 MLD project on Ulhas River at Shahad.