Mumbai: IIT Roorkee Team to Inspect Malabar Hill Reservoir; Hanging Garden Group to Present Views

A team of experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee will visit Mumbai next week to inspect the Malabar Hill Reservoir (MHR). They will meet with the Hanging Garden Environmental Protection Group to discuss their perspective. The team will also review reports from the BMC's expert committee.

Based on their conclusions, the civic body will decide whether to demolish or reconstruct the 135-year-old British-era reservoir beneath the iconic Hanging Garden in South Mumbai.

Zoru Bhathena, an environmental activist, mentioned that they are the complainants who raised the issue and will officially meet the team to present their side. “We will ask the BMC for an official meeting with the team to present our side,” said Bhathena. 

Earlier, an eight-member expert panel appointed to decide the fate of the reservoir submitted two different reports, leading to confusion. After receiving the contrasting reports from three professors of IIT-Bombay and four architects and local citizens' representatives, the BMC decided to seek a third-party opinion to determine the necessity of the reservoir's repair. Consequently, a civic team went to Uttarakhand and invited experts from IIT Roorkee to Mumbai last month.

Bhathena stated that the team is arriving on Monday and is expected to visit the site on both June 3 and 4. Abhijit Bangar, additional commissioner (project), also confirmed that the team is visiting on Monday.

Meanwhile, Indrani Malkani, Chairman of V Citizens Action Network (VCAN) and a resident of Malabar Hill, emphasized that a technical expert should determine the solution. “We should wait for the final decision by the inspection team,” she said.

The final two reports from the expert panel were submitted to the BMC on March 5. The expert team from IIT-Bombay recommended constructing a new tank with a usable capacity of 52.44 million liters per day to empty the existing tank for repairs or reconstruction. However, the other panel members representing citizens stated that the reservoir does not require demolition or reconstruction for the next 10–15 years as there is no danger of collapse disrupting the water supply.