Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’s biggest-ever water infrastructure project has crossed 82% physical progress, with a divisional review pushing contractors to close out the remaining work before the city’s next dry season. The Rs 2,740-crore scheme, funded under the Centre’s AMRUT 2.0 mission and sanctioned in February 2023, centres on a 392 MLD water purification plant at Nakshatrawadi, designed to serve a projected population of 33.17 lakh by 2052, according to Devdiscourse.

A city that has waited decades

Sambhajinagar’s water shortage is not new. Parts of the city have run on an alternate-day supply schedule for years, and successive municipal administrations have blamed everything from ageing pipelines to funding gaps for the delay in a comprehensive fix. The current project, sanctioned more than three years ago, has already worked through environmental clearance hurdles and land-acquisition delays before reaching its present stage, per Devdiscourse’s reporting. Oversight has since been layered up: Divisional Commissioner G. Sreekanth has directed officials to accelerate the remaining work, while Devdiscourse also names Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and a Bombay High Court-appointed committee among those monitoring progress, an unusually high level of scrutiny for a municipal water scheme.

Roughly Rs 1,891 crore of the sanctioned amount has been disbursed so far against that 82% physical progress figure, suggesting the pace of spending has broadly tracked the pace of construction rather than running ahead or behind it.

What it means for residents

The practical question for Sambhajinagar households is when the taps actually change. Here the two available accounts point to different dates rather than one clean deadline: Devdiscourse reports partial commissioning targeted for October 2025 and full operational status by December 2026, while the Free Press Journal cites a June 12, 2026 High Court-directed deadline for additional water supply to reach residents. These appear to be distinct milestones (a phased handover of extra supply versus the plant’s full commissioning) rather than conflicting claims about the same date, but the distinction matters. Residents waiting on relief from tanker dependence and rationed supply will feel the difference between “some more water by mid-2026” and “the project is finished.”

For a city where water scarcity has shaped everything from property values in outlying wards to seasonal tanker-mafia complaints, closing that gap on schedule would be one of the more consequential civic wins in Sambhajinagar in years. A further slip would not be unprecedented, given the project’s own history of missed internal timelines before reaching 82%.

Outlook

The presence of a High Court committee in the monitoring loop suggests the state is treating further delay as a legal, not just administrative, risk. Residents and local reporters will likely watch two things over the coming months: whether the October–December 2025 commissioning milestones (as reported) actually land, and whether the June 2026 court deadline for supply improvements is met without another extension request from the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran or its contractor.

Sources: Devdiscourse, Free Press Journal

This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.