India, Aug. 18 -- The irrigation department has submitted a Rs.220-crore proposal for repairing leakages at the Bhatsa dam, which supplies a major share of the water drawn daily for Mumbai.

Located in Shahapur tehsil in Thane district, the dam has developed several cracks, with water leakage reaching 1,633 litres per second at times. Grouting work needs to be undertaken at the dam urgently to plug the leaks, the proposal said.

"At present, the water which leaks out from the dam collects in the vertical porous drain and flows into the stream that travels to the Pise filtration plant (owned by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation). There is no wastage of water as such, but the leaks pose grave danger to the dam structure," executive eng...