The construction of the mini-STPs (Sewage Treatment Plants) has been taken up as part of the BMC's business incubation centre for entrepreneurs called the Society for Mumbai Incubation Lab to Entrepreneurship (SMILE) Council, and is being set up by one of the start-ups supported by the civic body.(File)The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will build seven sewage treatment plants for five slum clusters along the coast between Shivaji Nagar slum near Worli Koliwada and the Nehru Planetarium. These slum pockets earlier discharged their sewage directly into the sea and were located at the edge of the west coast of South Mumbai, until BMC carried out a reclamation drive for the Coastal Road project.
The construction of the mini-STPs (Sewage Treatment Plants) has been taken up as part of the BMC’s business incubation centre for entrepreneurs called the Society for Mumbai Incubation Lab to Entrepreneurship (SMILE) Council, and is being set up by one of the start-ups supported by the civic body. It is using Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) technology to recycle all the water with zero sewage discharge.
A senior civic official said, “The slum clusters do not have proper connections to the sewage network. They discharge their sewage directly into the sea and that channel has been disrupted because of the coastal road construction. It is the right time to connect the entire network to the new STPs and treat sewage at source.”
Each STP’s capacity will be 50 to 400 kilolitres per day. “This will be a gamechanger for the entire city as we are looking at decentralised treatment of sewage. We are planning to replicate it in other slum pockets as well,” the official said.
In its annual budget for 2018, BMC proposed the SMILE council – special purpose vehicle to support entrepreneurs in converting ideas into business opportunities while promoting social and infrastructure development for Mumbai.
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The SMILE Council inducted its first batch of entrepreneurs in July last year and has fostered seven businesses so far. Of these, three projects related to the healthcare industry matured in August and recently handed over their products to the civic body. Two businesses are working in the solid waste management sector and will build a waste-to-energy plant and a biomass-to-wood conversion unit. The seventh business is working to set up five STPs
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First published on: 14-08-2022 at 10:07:15 pm