Aaditya Thackeray's pet project like selling ice to Eskimos: AAP

AAP dubs desalination project at Manori a 'comical travesty and a Rs 3,250-cr scam'

Dubbing Maharashtra tourism and environment minister Aaditya Thackeray's pet project as "selling ice to Eskimos", the Aam Aadmi Party has begun training its guns on the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government ahead of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation polls.

"The MVA government and BMC are indulging Aaditya Thackeray’s flights of fancy. If the penguins, the zoo plan in Aarey, the cycle track in Powai were not silly enough, his new pet project -- a desalination plant in Manori is as silly as selling ice to the Eskimos,” the AAP said in a statement Tuesday night.

The AAP, which is in power in Delhi and Punjab, said desalination plants are popular in arid or desert climates which witness scanty rainfall and have low groundwater capabilities. “Perhaps the Thackerays don’t know that Mumbai falls in the sub-tropical climate zone and last monsoon we were blessed with 3,000 mm rainfall! Blessed with lakes, 4 rivers, 600 km of nallahs (tributaries), and making smaller lakes, ponds and wells, the Mumbai landscape nowhere compares with desert climates,” the party said in the statement.

The party also accused the government and the BMC of perpetrating a scam on Mumbaikars. The desalination project would require Rs 1,600 crore capital and another Rs 1,900 crore for operational costs spanning a 20-year shelf life, it said. Aaditya Thackeray’s pet project "is not just a comical travesty but a Rs 3,520 crore scam!" AAP said. "This is not to mention the new 33-megawatt electric power station being built to support it at additional cost."

“Instead of focusing on preventable losses of water which can easily plug demand, Aaditya Thackeray seems to be only interested in his fantasy projects. It is not his personal money at stake here but the hard earned tax rupees of Mumbaikars,” said Vice Admiral (Retd) IC Rao, Chairman of the Aam Aadmi Party’s policy department. “The AAP in Delhi has made a robust model by rejuvenating lakes and wells, an activity that the BMC has totally ignored.” he added.

“The biggest cause of water loss in Mumbai is leaking drains as well as failure to rejuvenate the water table due to high concretisation. Also the BMC and Aaditya Thackeray have both failed to address the severe problem of impure water, most of South Mumbai received tainted water. We advise him to focus on real problems and not waste our resources on absurd projects,” said AAP leader Gopal Jhaveri, also known as the RiverMan of Mumbai.