Overview
- Designs call for a 69-metre dam on the Gargai river and a 1.6-km, 2.2-metre diameter tunnel carrying water to the Modak Sagar reservoir.
- The project is billed as Mumbai’s eighth water source, with initial augmentation of about 450 MLD once operational.
- About 3.1 lakh trees and roughly 652–658 hectares of Tansa sanctuary forest are affected; wildlife and forest clearances have been obtained, with compensatory afforestation land identified in Chandrapur.
- Two villages, Ogda and Khodade, will be submerged and about 619 families relocated to 400 hectares near Devli under a rehabilitation package that includes cash to build homes, farmland allotments and one government job per family.
- Officials estimate a six-year construction timeline after final approvals, reviving a 2015 proposal that was paused in 2019 and now tendered alongside broader long-term plans to expand Mumbai’s water sources.