NMMC Cuts Site Water. Curing Becomes a Cost Line

NMMC Disconnects Water Supply at Under-Construction Sites

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has disconnected water supply to under-construction sites.

What followed is an argument about measurement.

A Service Norm, Not a Plea

NMMC's water department found drinking water being drawn for curing.

CREDAI-BANM, the builders' association representing developers across the city, has written back asking the corporation to guarantee 75 litres per worker per day for drinking and basic hygiene.

That figure is a service norm, not a plea.

The Practical Case Against Tankers

Nalin Sharma, director and co-founder of Sai Developers, makes the practical case.

Tankers work on small plots. They do not work on cluster redevelopment sites running hundreds of workers, and they add cost.

A Disconnection That Works Like an Accounting Decision

Read the disconnection as an accounting decision.

NMMC had a consumer category, construction sites, drawing from a domestic network at domestic tariffs, with nothing separating:

- Water that went into concrete
- Water that went into a bottle
- Curing, which consumes a large share of site demand

Once the corporation cannot split the two, it closes the connection and moves the burden of proof onto the developer.

Curing that waits for a weekly tanker is curing that slips.

Two Exposures the Tender Documents Never Itemised

Contractors executing NMMC-area work now carry two exposures the tender documents never itemised: water availability and water price.

Tankered supply is billed per trip, and in a shortage quarter the trip rate is set by whoever is hauling.

Sharma's counter-proposal — meters at the site boundary with disconnection only above a permissible limit — restores precisely the measurement NMMC says it wants.

A Narrow Signal That Will Travel

The signal is narrow, and it will travel.

In water-stressed metros, site water is shifting from unmetered input to enforced and priced input, with the enforcement landing on the contractor's programme rather than on the authority's balance sheet.

Navi Mumbai is early. Every municipal corporation running a supply deficit is looking at the same ledger.