Addressing the need for keeping water bodies in rural parts of the district pollution free, Maharashtra Government on Tuesday approved an outlay of Rs 268.84 crore to erect 4 sewage treatment plants (STPs). The cabinet meeting held at Mumbai cleared the proposal of Urban Development Department (UDD) under Maharashtra Urban Primary Services Development Loan under which HUDCO is giving Rs 2,000 crore to State Government. The sites chosen for the plants are Pipla (27 MLD), Kapsi (5 MLD), Vihirgaon (27 MLD) and Tarodi (15 MLD). Lalit Raut, who is with Nagpur Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (NMRDA), said that the plants’ capacity is planned anticipating the requirement till year 2050.

 

These STPs are being taken-up under Amrut 2.0 scheme of Central Government where focus in on upgrading urban infrastructure taking into account the increasing urbanisation. With rapid expansion in urbanisation, NMRDA had put up proposal before State Government seeking finance to construct the STPs so that in future, the rising pollution in the water bodies can be countered. One can see residential colonies coming up in all around the city, and Raut said the STPs sites are off the local nullahs. Raut said that NMRDA has planned for a three-year period to ready the STPs, but most probably once the funds are released, they may start operating within a period of 2 years. Right now, the sewage water is let out of colonies and emptied directly into the nullah.

 

Hence to ensure that before the settlement rises, the STPs must be ready, NMRDA readied the plan and sought nod from Government. NMRDA proactively considered future rising development and taking cue from Nagpur city where STPs came quite late and the cost of pollution abutment has sky rocketed. Raut said land requirement for 2 STPs, that of Pipla and Tarodi, is completed and work would start soon. As to other 2 sites at Kapsi and Vihirgaon, requirement for land is posted with Land Acquisition Officer and the process would start in near future. Since Kapsi STP is having lesser capacity, the land requirement is just 1 acre while at other places it ranges from 2 to 2.5 acres depending upon the capacity of plant.