Rooftop garden, viewing deck at sewage facility in Bandra

MUMBAI: Construction of Bandra Waste Water Treatment Facility (WWTF) is set to kick-off soon, with plans for a rooftop garden, interpretation centre for students and visitors, Arabian Sea viewing gallery and a library.

The bidding process to construct the facility will be completed by the first week of October.

Additional municipal commissioner, Sanjay Mukherjee said, “Bandra WWTF will be one of the most complex projects in the world. Its capacity is also huge, at 360 million liters per day (MLD). It will take five years to complete after construction work starts.”

The waste water treatment plant is set to come up at Bandra Reclamation and will be spread over 8 hectares of land. It will be made partially underground, contrary to the original plan. Since the location of WWTF is visible

from the Bandra-worli Sea Link, residents of Bandra had expressed concerns about it being an eye-sore. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) later changed the plan and decided to construct WWTF below the surface.

“After the design was changed, the height of WWTF was reduced by taking it partially underground. A portion of it is still visible from the sea link. This portion will now be decorated with a rooftop garden which will be seen from the sea link,” said Ashish Shelar, MLA, Bandra area.

“Students and visitors will have exposure to the myriad aspects of water and wastewater management and the need for its conservation.”

Special consultants appointed by BMC will design the garden which will have a theme.

“Since we want the plant to be constructed with the latest technology available in the market, we have kept the technology to be used open-ended, and hence the cost will vary slightly. It will take five years to construct WWTF and the garden atop it,” said a BMC official.