Keeping the areas of Hindmata, Lalbaug, and Reay Road free from water-logging during monsoons has cost the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) a little fortune.
Keeping the areas of Hindmata, Lalbaug, and Reay Road free from water-logging during monsoons has cost the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) a little fortune. The land housing the Britannia pumping station at Reay Road belongs to the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and is leased by the civic body.
BMC will be spending an additional Rs 1.72 crore and a yearly sum of Rs 8.1 lakh compounded at 4 per cent per year, for the next 30 years to MbPT as charges for using the 2,200 square meter of land that houses the pumping station. This is in addition to the cost incurred by the civic body to pay the contractor for maintenance and day-to-day functioning of the Britannia pumping station.
The Rs 1.72 crore is a one-time payment that includes security deposit for using the private land amounting to Rs 62.68 lakh, land premium amounting to Rs 62.63 lakh, lease agreement expenditure amounting to Rs 31 lakh, and concretisation of surrounding road amounting to Rs 10 lakh. Following this, the civic body will pay Rs 8.1 lakh during the first year as rent which will compound by 4 per cent every year for 30 years, when the BMC will land up paying Rs 25 lakh in the last year.
A civic official associated with the project said, “This is definitely an exception and we are not paying for other similar projects. But this is a small amount in exchange for the relief Britannia will provide to Hindmata, which is notorious for getting water logging every monsoon.”
