Mumbai: Developer claims land theirs, Jogeshwari pumping station hits roadblock

In July 2021, the BMC Standing Committee had cleared a proposal of awarding a contract of Rs 393 crore to a joint venture of Michigan Engineers Private Limited and Mahalasa Construction Private Limited. The work was expected to be completed in 20 months (excluding monsoon). However, even though 10 months have elapsed, the civic body hasn’t gone beyond preliminary works, such as, site survey and soil investigation.

Officials from the Storm Water Drain (SWD) department said that the progress of the project is impacted due to the legal battle.

“Earlier there was a dispute over the ownership of the proposed site of Mogra Pumping station. To resolve the issue of land acquisition, the department had decided to construct the pumping station over the nullah. Now, a private party has reached court, claiming that they own the land over the nullah. The case is on and so far, the court has allowed us to go ahead with the preliminary work. Officials from the Development Plan department have also been involved in the legal fight,” said a BMC official who is involved with the project.

The pumping station at Mogra nullah would be the seventh in the city under the BRIMSTOWAD project, to be constructed for flood mitigation. The project is expected to provide relief in areas such as Andheri, Jogeshwari, Oshiwara from flooding during monsoon.

“The pumping station will have the capacity of throwing out 42,000 litre water per second,” said an official from the SWD department.

Earlier, another crucial pumping station proposed at Mahul faced the hurdle. The land exchanged between BMC and the private developer for the Mahul pumping station has been stuck as the land offered by BMC to the developer has been marked as Non-Development Zone (NDZ) in the new Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP).

After the deluge in 2005, the BMC had planned to construct eight pumping stations to improve the storm water drainage system in the city. So far, six pumping stations, at Haji Ali, Love Grove and Cleaveand Bunder at Worli, Irla at Juhu, Britannia at Reay Road, and Gazadarbandh at Khar Danda have been completed.