Overview
- Talks between Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials and Malabar Hill residents, which ended Friday without a deal, will continue with a follow-up meeting planned with Additional Municipal Commissioner Abhijit Bangar on Monday.
- BMC leaders say a 52-million-litre alternate tank inside Hanging Gardens is the only workable way to keep supply running during repairs, citing an IIT-Roorkee assessment and ruling out a nearby post office site as unfeasible.
- Residents and activists oppose building in the protected garden, argue the five-compartment reservoir can be repaired in phases, and call the proposal unlawful for a no-development green heritage zone.
- Critics question spending between Rs 700 crore and Rs 1,000 crore on the additional tank and urge smaller fixes or an alternate location within reach of the existing pipelines.
- The century-old Malabar Hill reservoir supplies about 147 MLD to South Mumbai, and after a 2022 audit flagged risks the city dropped a full rebuild in 2023 and now proposes phased repairs with a temporary tank while saying tree loss would fall from about 389 to roughly 76–79.