The committee headed by Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) chief engineer S. D. Shelkikar submitted its report to Agrawal two days ago. Top civic officials confirmed that the report had underlined the need for making several changes in the original report prepared by the Kirloskar Consultants.

The committee has observed that the report had considered the 250-litre per capita water consumption was exaggerated and based on wrong assumptions. The committee has suggested that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) should consider the per capita water consumption at 225 litres, which will also bring down the project cost.

The original report while deciding the 250-litre per capita water consumption had assumed that 162 litres per capita consumption was for domestic purpose, 25 litres for non-domestic purposes and 33 per cent as leakage.

However, the committee report has suggested that the PMC should consider 150 litres per capita consumption for domestic purposes, 25 litres for non-domestic use and 25 per cent as leakage.

The committee has made a strong suggestion that the PMC should ensure the utilisation of the existing infrastructure and machinery while preparing any water project. It has suggested that the infrastructure and machinery at Parvati and Cantonment Water Works should not be underutilised or scrapped while executing the new project. The original report had suggested a new water purification centre at Varje, because of which the machinery and infrastrfucture at Parvati and Cantonment Water Works was likely to be underutilised.

The committee has observed that the PMC should undertake construction of Varje water works with a capacity of 250 million litres instead of 570 million litres as proposed by the original report. It also recommended the construction of a new water purification centre at Vadgaon Dhayri to meet the water needs on Simhagad road. The committee has observed that the PMC could lay a pipeline connecting the proposed Vadgaon Dhayri water works and the water tank at Taljai hills. This would increase the water supply in Sahkarnagar and Padmavati areas.

The committee has strongly opposed an additional water tank at Parvati water works to ensure minimum water level. The additional tank would unnecessarily increase power expenditure, it observed.

The committee did not feel the need for a 100-million litre sewerage treatment plant at Naidu Sewerage Treatment Centre. The present plant was not being used up to its capacity because of lack of adequate sewerage supply at present, they observed. The committee, however, has admitted the need for construction of a new sewerage treatment plant at Bhairoba pumping station. The commissioner had appointed the experts' committee when Water Supply Minister Anna Dange had instructed the civic authorities to reconsider the entire scheme under attack from all the corporators.