Nag River Sewage Polluting Gosikhurd, HC seeks info from NMC

Nagpur: The Nagpur Bench of Bombay high court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of a TOI report on Nag River pollution. The court converted the report into a public interest litigation (PIL), flagging concerns that partly untreated sewage flowing into the Nag River is in turn adversely affecting the water quality of the Gosikhurd dam.A division bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode said the issue was a serious matter of environment and public health. The bench directed the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) commissioner to place on record the relevant information and documents. The court appointed advocate Rushda Khan as amicus curiae, while advocate Mayuri Deshmukh represented the state. The next hearing is scheduled for June 25.The TOI report, published on May 1, cited statistics from an RTI reply received by former corporator Vedprakash Arya from the NMC's public health engineering department, which confirmed that untreated sewage entering the Nag River was ultimately polluting the Gosikhurd reservoir.Nagpur generates around 520 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage, of which the NMC and the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) jointly treat 423.5MLD, the report stated. Of the treated effluent, 320MLD is sold to the Koradi and Khaparkheda thermal power stations, while the remainder is discharged back into the Nag River, the same river system the civic body is spending crores to clean.The bench noted that even as the state was running a massive cleanup of the river, untreated sewage water continues to be released into it. The bench also took note of the TOI report's findings that gaps in sewerage infrastructure were causing untreated sewage to flow into the river. The HC also pointed out from the report that the NMC's health department had not conducted any survey on the health impact of contaminated Gosikhurd water on citizens. The bench also took note that water samples were not being collected from heavily polluted stretches in east Nagpur, with the Sept 2025 test reports drawn from relatively cleaner locations such as Shankar Nagar showing low BOD and COD levels.The Rs1,927 crore Nag River Pollution Abatement Project, funded by the Centre and the state, is currently rolling out new sewage treatment plants, over 500km of sewerage lines and new pumping stations across the city.