Vihar Lake
| Vihar Lake विहार तलाव |
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| Location | Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai |
| Coordinates | 19°08′38″N 72°54′36″E / 19.1440°N 72.910°ECoordinates: 19°08′38″N 72°54′36″E / 19.1440°N 72.910°E |
| Type | reservoir, fresh water |
| Primary inflows | Mithi River |
| Primary outflows | Mithi River |
| Catchment area | 18.96 km2 (7.32 sq mi) |
| Basin countries | India |
| Surface area | 7 km2 (2.7 sq mi) |
| Max. depth | 34 m (112 ft) |
| Water volume | 9,200,000,000 imp gal (0.042 km3) |
| Surface elevation | 80.42 m (263.8 ft) |
| Islands | Salsette |
| Settlements | Mumbai |
Vihar Lake is located near Vihar village on the Mithi River within the precincts of the Borivali National Park, also called the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, in North Mumbai. When built in 1860 (construction started in 1856), it was considered as the largest lake in Mumbai in the Salsette group of islands. It is hemmed between the Tulsi Lake and the Powai Lake(shown in map). It partly meets the drinking water needs of the South Mumbai region. It supplies only 3% of the Mumbai city’s water requirement, after filtration at Bhandup where the large water filtration plant is located. .
With the few thousand wells feeding the population of Mumbai tending to go dry during summer, the acute shortage of water resulted in protests by the local residents in June 1845. A two-man committee, appointed by the British rulers of the time, to examine the grievances of the agitators concurred with water shortage problem and stressed the urgent need to solve the water supply problem of Mumbai.
The Committee appointed by the government located suitable sites to construct dams and create reservoirs to store the monsoon flows of the Mithi river catchment, which resulted in presently existing Vihar Lake, Tulsi Lake and the Powai Lake. Vihar reservoir was the first piped water supply scheme of Mumbai.
In 1850, Captain Crawford submitted a report favouring the Vihar Scheme for the Mumbai city’s water supply needs.
Work on the “Vihar Water Works” commenced in January 1856 and was completed in 1860, during the governorship of John Lord Elphinstone.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC),a Govt. body which controls the lake's affairs has also acquired agricultural land in the catchment area of the Vihar lake as a sanitary precaution.
By road, it is 31 km from Mumbai. Access by suburban electric train is to Kurla or Andheri and then by road.
Access to the lake for the general public has been curtailed since March 13, 1993( Source: Official BMC Board installed at the gate ) following the Bombay Blasts on March 12, 1993 due to perceived threats to the Mumbai public, as the lake is located in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It can still be viewed in many Bollywood movies in a long shot taken from Mumbai Film City, as seen in the Infobox.
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Wikipedia