Prof. Vikas Mathkari

PUNE, Feb 21: The sewage treatment plants (STPs) of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have the capacity to treat only half of the city?s sewage and the remaining half is being disposed without treatment, said Municipal Commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi.
Leader of the opposition Vikas Mathkari alleged during the general body meeting on Thursday that the sewage was being directly disposed into the Mutha river in some parts of the city and asked for information about the STPs condition.
Pardeshi, in reply, stated that the PMC would find out the gaothan areas from where the sewage was being disposed without treatment.
He said that the city was generating about 700 to 800 MLD of sewage per day and the total capacity of the STPs was only 305 MLDs.
He agreed that the remaining sewage was being disposed without treatment.
Mathkari further alleged that the contracted STPs were not functioning with full capacity and demanded action against them. Other corporators also demanded that the commissioner himself should survey the situation.
The civic chief sought three weeks? time to survey the sewage system.
Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale asked the commissioner to table a report in a month.
The PMC has four STPs in the city and another five have been proposed in the draft budget for which Rs 160 crores have been proposed. The proposed STPs are at Naidu Hospital (115 MLDs), Mundhwa (45 MLDs), Baner (30 MLDs), Vitthalwadi (32 MLDs), and Kharadi (40 MLDs).
The PMC has also received proposals for STPs under the JNNURM, which are for Bhairoba Nallah (80 MLDs), Mangalwar Peth (30 MLDs), Kalyaninagar (30 MLDs), Warje (30 MLDs) and Tanajiwadi (30 MLDs).