Pimpri-Chinchwad: Water Supply to 184 Housing Societies to be Cut Off Over Inactive STPs
Pimpri-Chinchwad, 20th May 2025: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has announced that water supply to 184 housing societies will be cut off starting 1st June due to their failure to activate Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), despite receiving three prior notices.
These housing societies, each with over 100 residential units, are legally required to operate STPs under the Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR). This applies to residential complexes built on land exceeding 20,000 square meters or consuming over 20,000 liters of water per day. The regulation mandates the reuse and recycling of water in such large-scale developments.
Currently, the rapidly expanding city of Pimpri-Chinchwad supplies approximately 620 to 630 million liters of water daily. However, due to the growing population and increasing demand, many large societies still rely on private water tankers, indicating a shortage in municipal water supply.
Out of 456 large housing societies in the city, only 264 have functioning STPs. Despite repeated instructions from the civic body, the remaining 184 societies have kept their STPs inactive due to various reasons, leading to administrative action.
PCMC Commissioner Shekhar Singh stated that the responsibility to run STPs lies with the societies, and sufficient time has already been provided. “Water connections to non-compliant societies will be disconnected from 1st June,” he said.
On the other hand, society representatives argue that operating an STP involves high maintenance costs—estimated at around ₹40,000 per month. They also claim that builders often fail to construct fully functional STPs, leaving societies to bear the burden. They have demanded action against such builders and called for an inspection of the condition of STPs installed by the municipal corporation itself.
“Water is a basic necessity. Cutting off supply is not a viable solution. The municipality already fails to provide enough water, forcing societies to depend on tankers,” said Dattatray Deshmukh, President of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Co-operative Housing Society Federation.
