Dahisar river’s water quality to improve, Piyush Goyal inaugurates two sewage treatment plans | Mumbai News
3 min readMumbaiMay 10, 2026 10:57 PM IST
The 17.4 km long Dahisar river which has remained in a polluted state for several decades, is set to get a new lease of life with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) initiating an overall rejuvenation programme for the river.
On Sunday (May 10) the civic body completed the first phase of this project, under which two Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) were inaugurated by Piyush Goyal — union minister and Mumbai North MP.
According to the BMC data, these two STPs are set to improve the water quality by 40 times than what it was earlier.
Speaking at the inauguration, Goyal said that the Dahisar river will be rejuvenated in lines of Ganga and Sabarmati rivers. “Just like Ganga, Dahisar river is also our mother. So it is our responsibility to rejuvenate it and protect it from degradation and give it a new life instead, since development is not about building and creating infrastructures only, but protecting environment is also a key part in it,” Goyal said in his speech.
The Dahisar river originates from the Kanheri Caves inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and flows through the densely populated areas in north Mumbai including Oshiwara, Dahisar, and Borivali and finally flowing into the Arabian Sea. As the demography of suburban Mumbai had grown, waste water and effluent from the residential areas and commercial establishments would get discharged into the river and with time the water of the river turned black due to pollution.
In 2020, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the BMC to come up with a proposal to rejuvenate the river, following which the BMC chalked out a two phase river rejuvenation plan. In the first phase, the BMC has set up two Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) to treat the incoming sewage and waste water coming into the river. Of the two, one has a capacity of treating sewage of 5 million litres daily (MLD), while the other STP has a capacity to treat sewage or 1.5 MLD daily.
“These STPs will act as a barrier, thus preventing the untreated sewage from entering the river. The STPs will catch the effluents, treat the water and then they will discharge them into the river,” an official said. According to the civic body’s data, the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) — in indicator of dissolved oxygen in water. Higher BOD indicates more pollution levels in water. Water before treatment stood at 78.8 mg/l, while post treatment the BOD stands at 1.91 mg/l — indicating an improvement by 40 times, data showed. According to civic authorities, the BMC had spent Rs 245 crore for construction of these two STPs.
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Speaking at the event, Manisha Chaudhuri — Bharatiya Janata Party (MLA) from Dahisar said that in the next phase the BMC will create walkways around the bank of the river and improve its water quality to an extent that boating and eco-tourism could be started there.
“The Dahisar river is centuries old and it is mentioned in history that Raja Bimba used this river as a major transport route. During the 1950s shooting of films used to take place here, as a result it is now our responsibility to rejuvenate this river and give it a new lease of life,” Chaudhuri said.
