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The stone laying ceremony will be held at the site in Thane district by Union Minister for Urban Development Department Dr Jaipal Reddy along with Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.
At a height of 105 metres, the dam will be constructed about 145 km northeast of Mumbai at Mokhada in Thane district.
One of the most ambitious and expensive projects, the Rs 1,400-crore dam aims to balance the existing water shortage. Once completed in 2011, it will supply an additional 455 million litres of water per day.
About 28 per cent of the work, which includes construction of approach roads and other components, has already been carried out at the cost of Rs 397 crore.
Works such as laying pipelines, constructing tunnels and the main dam will be completed within the next 42 months.
The dam will be constructed at a cost of Rs 490 crore by the China International Water and Electric (CWE) engineering company — a state-owned large-scale enterprise under the direct jurisdiction of the government of the People’s Republic of China and Soma enterprises (joint venture).
Setting up the Middle Vaitarna Dam for additional water was first proposed in the late 90s. The BMC took a decade to approve the project and get permission from the state environment department. The project received formal approval in October last year, before which the Sena had opposed awarding of the contract to Chinese companies. After a lot of hurdles, the project will now see the light of day in the next few days.
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