Overview
- A four-hour blockade on the Pune–Solapur highway on Saturday was led by NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar and local leaders demanding an official public hearing within two months and immediate cancellation of the Ujani proposals.
- The Maharashtra administration on Sunday said the first-phase plan would take roughly nine percent of the reservoir area, use closed-loop direct-to-chip cooling for the AI data centre, and consume about 0.42 TMC of water per year.
- Officials also clarified the phased package includes 2,000 MW floating solar, 1,800 MW battery storage and a proposed 1,400 MW AI data centre while denying that green hydrogen or small modular nuclear reactors are part of the current proposal.
- Protesters reject the official figures, claim far higher water needs (figures cited up to 9 TMC) and low local job creation, and have warned of larger agitations if the projects move forward without what they call genuine local consent.
- Ujani supplies irrigation and drinking water to large parts of Solapur and neighbouring districts, making water allocation the likely trigger for extended political fights, tighter scrutiny of technical claims, and potential delays to the project.