The long-awaited Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) project undertaken by the Wadi Municipal Council (WMC) will take three more months to complete as the local body resolves pending power connectivity issues. As per the information, the project is nearing completion, with over 95 per cent of civil and mechanical works accomplished. Spread across nearly 1.5 acres of land, the ambitious project is being developed at a total cost of Rs 104.73 crore. The funding structure comprises an 85 per cent grant from the State Government, under the Maharashtra Suvarna Jayanti Nagarothan Mahaabhiyan (State-Level) scheme, with the remaining 15 per cent contributed directly from the Wadi Municipal Council’s coffers. A nullah coming from Wadi area is the main culprit behind water pollution in Ambazari lake. To stop the intrusion of sewage in the waterbody, the STP is needed. However, the project is delayed as he work order has been issued on the July 18, 2023. Total capacity of the STP is 11 million litre per day (MLD).

 

However the officials told that the capacity has been designed keeping in mind the growing population which may require this larger capacity as the nullah which is planned to draw sewage water from, it currently generates flow of 7.6 MLD. Detailing the execution challenges, Naresh Charde, Chairman of WMC, stated that the rocky topography posed severe engineering hurdles during the construction phase. Because the facility borders semi-government property, authorities strictly prohibited controlled blasting techniques to level the hard rock terrain. Consequently, the civic body had to deploy heavy-duty excavators, JCBs, and specialised diamond cutters to chisel through the rock.

 

The manual levelling process took nearly 8 to 10 months for a task that would have otherwise taken barely two months through standard rock-blasting. Laying pipeline networks across the busy National Highway corridor added further operational complexity. With primary construction virtually complete, the only remaining roadblock is establishing a dedicated high-tension electricity link with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) substation situated nearly one kilometre from the site. To resolve this, the civic body has re-floated the power connectivity tender, open from August 18 to August 25. An earlier tender floated this year between January 22 and February 17 failed to attract bidders because it required laying transmission cables over a 5-kilometre stretch from the Lava substation. “We revised the technical scope to draw power from a much closer substation just one kilometre away. We are very positive this time, having already received two potential inquiries from eligible contractors,” an official from the Electrical Department of Wadi Municipal Council confirmed. While the wait still continues, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has successfully cleared eichhornia from the Ambazari lake and the citizens are waiting for the inauguration of the Wadi STP, so that the massive amount of untreated sewage water does not directly flow into the lake and destroy one of the most iconic waterbody.