Tapi riverfront project: SMC approaches Centre for loan from World Bank

SMC commissioner B N Pani said, “In the first phase, the embankment area of 20 km stretch from Rundh to weir-cum-causeway at Singhanpore will be developed and estimated cost of it is Rs 1,991 crore. In the second phase, the work on the embankment area from the causeway to Gay-Pagla area at Kamrej in Surat will be developed. The entire area on both the banks is around 46 km and estimated project cost is around Rs 2,000 crore.”

“For a soft loan of Rs 1,991 crore from the World Bank, approval from the state and the central governments is mandatory. We have presented a preliminary report of the project to the state government which has approved it. Now the proposal has been forwarded to three departments — Niti Ayog, Urban Development and the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. Following their approval, the Central government will approach the World Bank for loan approval,” Pani said.

“We have received approval of the Niti Ayog and Urban development department. After the loan is disbursed, we will prepare a Detail Project Report and then issue tender notices for the work. The entire river development project will be funded by the Centre, state government, SMC and World Bank,” the SMC commissioner added.

Giving details of the project, SMC City engineer A M Dubey said, “The embankment area on both the banks up to 10 km areas will be made in such a way that people can enjoy the view of the river. We have also planned to set up water sports, walking and jogging tracks, cycling tracks, children play area and eatery zones.”

SMC has also moved forward with their conventional river barrage project and for that, the design has been sent to GERI (Gujarat Engineering and Research Institute) for approval. The estimated cost of the conventional barrage project (earlier known as balloon barrage) is around Rs 500 crore.

Dubey said, “Once the GERI approves the design model, we will go ahead with other approval procedures. The barrage will be made on both the banks at Rundh and Bhata and its height will be 13 meters. Water carrying capacity of the Tapi river is over 8 lakh cusecs. We have designed the barrage project in such a way that the capacity of the river increases to 13 lakh cusecs.”