While the detailed survey report is yet to be made available by the irrigation department, civic authorities said that the location of the bund would be close to the existing bund near Ravet. The existing bund is of the height of two metres and the new bund would be of a height of about 2.3 metres.

With the construction of new bund of about 2.3 metres height it would be possible to store enough water for meeting the water supply needs for a minimum period of 20 days, the authorities said.

The PCMC, at present, has no provision for storing water, as raw water is just drawn from the river at the intake plant at Ravet. Water supply to the township could continue uninterrupted for a maximum of four days even if the release of water is stopped by the irrigation department. The need for storing enough water to meet emergency situations was felt gravely in November last when the irrigation department at a very short notice had informed the municipal corporation that release of water would be stopped for about seven days. The notice had triggered a panic reaction in the municipal corporation because of the fear that there would be no water supply for at least seven days to the township. Although the civic authorities were later successful in convincing the irrigation department about the need for releasing enough water, the civic authorities immediately began working on a plan for storage of water in the Pavana river.

A provision of Rs 70 lakh was made in the civic budget for constructing a bund across the Pavana river and a joint survey was initiated for completing the work. Increasing the height of the existing bund was not possible as it is nearly seventy years old.

The proposed bund would not have a height of more than 2.3 metres as it is feared that the agricultural lands near Punavale and Ravet would get submerged.

Meanwhile, the PCMC has started supplying nearly 50 MLD water through its new parallel water supply scheme to Bhosari and Dapodi. According to the civic authorities, domestic and commercial water connections in Bhosari which have been provided by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation are now being cut off. The MIDC water supply will be stopped completely in the next two months and instead PCMC will be providing water to Bhosari area.

The PCMC has also started providing 2.66 MLD water to the three villages Dighi, Charholi and Wadmukhwadi merged in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The water supply is through the world-bank aided independent water supply scheme for Wagholi and other fringe villages. Water standposts in these villages are to be removed completely so that citizens take individual water connections, the authorities added.