CIVIC BODY SEEKS INTERVENTION OF IIT EXPERTS FROM ANOTHER STATE

MUMBAI: After receiving contrasting reports on Malabar Hill reservoir from two teams of experts, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now seeking intervention of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) from another state.

“I am going to write to IIT Madras or Delhi or Kanpur and send them both the reports. Either of them will be asked to give the last word and decide the fate of the reservoir,” a senior civic official said. “I am not a hydraulics person, and therefore cannot read the hydraulic engineering reports and decide what is right and wrong.”

Emphasising the need for an experts’ opinion, the official said, “One team of experts, one of whom is an architect, is saying it can be repaired. After repairs, if there is a reservoir burst five to 10 years from now, and south Mumbai goes out of water for six months, people will lodge a police complaint against me. Hence, I will seek intervention from IIT experts, who are not from Mumbai, to give me the final report on whether to reconstruct or repair the reservoir,” the official said.

In the assessments conducted on the condition of the reservoir, located under the iconic Hanging Gardens, two teams of experts submitted their final reports on March 5.

The first group, comprising experts from Iit-bombay - professors R S Jangid, V Jothiprakash and Dasaka Murty, and BMC engineer C H Kandalkar, proposed an initial cleaning phase followed by a series of tests. In contrast, the second team representing citizens – IITBombay professor Alok Goyal, structural engineers Dr VV Nori and Alpa Sheth, and architect Rahul Kadri – have not expressed the need for reconstruction, citing a projected reservoir lifespan of 15 years.

The Hanging Gardens Environment Protection Group and Save Mumbai Racecourse Group have arranged on March 20 an open house meeting on the issue with Rahul Narwekar, speaker of assembly, and former corporator Makarand Narwekar.

am going to write to IIT Madras or Delhi or Kanpur and send them both the reports. Either of them will be asked to decide fate of the reservoir CIVIC OFFICIAL