The much awaited 'Mithi River Clean Up' project of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to begin only after May this year. As the installation work of the customised recycling plant made by a Finland based RiverRecycle Company, likely to take place in the fourth week of May, only after overcoming the challenges of logistical, labour issues and availability of technical experts amid Covid-19 pandemic. Besides, custom clearance, site preparation by taking measurements, depth analysis about the flow of river and floating waste the said installation work will be completed and thereafter the cleaning work shall begin. The machine was dispatched from the foreign country in October 2020 and has already reached India in January this year, informed MMRDA.

The Mithi River Clean-up project is one the city's crucial project as the city faced unprecedented deluge on July 26, 2005 with rainfall of 944 mm in 24 hours coinciding with highest high tide of 4.48 metre resulting in severe flooding in the river's catchment area. It drew attention of the entire world.

The Mithi River originates from spillovers of Vihar and Powai Lake traverses through Mumbai's suburban and meets Arabian sea at Mahim Bay after flowing below 15 bridges for a length of 17.84 Km. Of which, 11.84 Km (Vihar Lake to CST Bridge on SCLR) is under the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and 6 KM (CST Bridge on SCLR to Mahim Creek) is under the jurisdiction of MMRDA. Following the instructions of Maharashtra government these implementing agencies are already carrying out the cleaning of the river regularly. The proposed clean-up project is expected to improve the river more.

Disclaimer: This story has not been edited by Water Today staff and is generated from news feeds. Source: Free Press Journal