Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’s mayor, Sameer Rajurkar, has escalated the city’s long-troubled ₹2,740-crore water supply scheme directly to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has called a high-level review meeting in Mumbai on July 15 with officials from Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran, the municipal corporation, and the project contractor, according to Navarashtra. The first phase of the scheme was supposed to start delivering 200 MLD of water to the city from June 12; that deadline has already passed.

A quarter-century of delay, four cost revisions

The project’s paper trail explains the frustration. The original work order for the scheme dates back to 2001. Its estimated cost has climbed from ₹359 crore when revised in 2009, to ₹900 crore, then ₹1,680 crore, and now ₹2,740 crore, according to figures cited by Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Ambadas Danve in the Legislative Council and reported by Saamana. As of July 11, the project was reported 83.5% complete, with Danve also alleging substandard material use in some sections. Urban Development Minister Uday Samant told the legislature he would set up an independent committee to review the project every 15 days.

What’s actually holding up water to households now, per Navarashtra’s reporting, is a cluster of execution snags rather than one big failure: a leak found in the slab of the new purification center at Nakshatrawadi, a dispute between the contractor and Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran over valve replacement, and delays in starting pumps at Nathsagar even after repairs there were finished. None of these are large individually, but together they’ve kept the tap dry past a deadline the municipal commissioner had already intervened once to enforce.

Why residents have stopped taking deadlines at face value

Sambhajinagar’s water problem isn’t new, and that’s precisely the point residents keep making. A scheme first ordered in 2001 has now outlived multiple municipal commissioners, cost nearly eight times its original estimate, and is still being reviewed for missed deadlines a quarter-century later. Every missed date adds to a pattern where announcements of imminent supply have repeatedly not translated into water reaching taps, which is why Danve’s “date after date” jab in the legislature landed as more than a political dig.

What it means for residents

For a city that has relied on tanker supply and rationed municipal water for years, a functioning 200 MLD scheme would meaningfully change daily life, cutting dependence on tankers and easing pressure on groundwater. But each fresh delay also means continued reliance on the same rationed supply residents have budgeted around for years, and a fresh round of scrutiny over whether the money already spent, now approaching eight times the original estimate, has bought commensurate progress.

Outlook

Wednesday’s meeting in Mumbai is a test of whether direct CM-level involvement can cut through the coordination failures between the contractor, MJP, and the municipal corporation that have stalled the project at the execution stage. Watch for whether the meeting produces a firm revised date for 200 MLD delivery, and whether Samant’s promised 15-day review committee actually convenes and reports publicly, rather than adding one more oversight layer to a project that already has several.

Sources: Navarashtra, Saamana

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