Thane civic body can meet water needs till 2025, HC told

The Bombay High Court was today assured by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) that it has enough water supply for the entire Thane district till 2025 and said the stay on new constructions on Ghodbunder Road would create problems.
The High Court had in May ordered a temporary stay on any new constructions on the Ghodbunder Road in neighbouring Thame district over the issue of inadequate water supply to residential colonies in the area.
The court had restrained TMC from granting commencement certificates for any new constructions along the Ghodbunder Road and also from issuing occupancy certificates to recently completed projects.

The order was passed while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Thane resident Manesh Shelar who claimed that abrupt water cuts to various areas along the Ghodbunder Road had become a routine and residents were forced to buy water from private water tanker suppliers.
The Thane civic body in an affidavit submitted today before a division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N M Jamdar rubbished the claims of the petition.
"The Corporation is able to provide drinking water through water pipelines throughout the year to all areas in Thane including Ghodbunder Road. This shows that water supply available is sufficient to take care of the city (Thane) till 2025," the affidavit filed by Ashok Rankhamb, Additional Municipal Commissioner of TMC, said.

"Ghodbunder Road is largely a planned area and has helped to reduce load to quite an extent on other congested areas in Thane. Stoppage of construction in the area is likely to drive citizens to move to other areas which are already congested or haphazardly developed," the affidavit said.

The Corporation further said that considering the fact that monsoons in the country is irregular and is deficient once in every few years, water cut is imposed once monsoon gets over so as to conserve water in case of a bad monsoon season.
"Water cuts are intendend to conserve water for future uncertainity and does not indicate any deficiency," the affidavit said.

It added that rain water harvesting is made mandatory for all new structures since 2005. "Occupation Certificate is issued to only those buildings where proper system of rain water harvesting is completed," the affidavit said.
The court today took the affidavit on record and posted the petition for further hearing next week.