Many wells of the yesteryears, created during Bhosale and British era, in Nagpur city have either been abandoned or wiped out during the course of the city’s development. These wells acted as life-saving water resources, especially, during the acute summer. One such well in Motibagh Railway Colony, which is 200 years old and acted as a garbage dumping site for decades, has been revived recently.

 

The South East Central Railway (SECR), Nagpur Division deserves appreciation for the massive revival act which lasted for about 110 days. They were actively supported by NEERI and NMC in the revival endeavour. Pravin Dubli, SECR’s ZRUCC member, also deserves a mention as he took the initiative with SECR authorities for the revival of the well. This well, with a huge storage capacity of about two crore litres, will be a vital water resource for SECR systems in Motibagh. If a database of such abandoned wells in Nagpur city is available with NMC, it can initiate the revival measures so that the supply load on OCW is reduced in the acute summer. Revival of abandoned wells will be an act of removal of blockages from the city’s water-feeding heart.