Industrial Visit

Summary of the Event :

A visit to the Bhandup Water Treatment Plant was organized as part of the Environmental Engineering (CEC604) curriculum for Third Year Civil Engineering under the University of Mumbai.

Mumbai’s water supply comes from Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vehar, Tulsi Lakes, and Bhatsa River, and is treated at major plants located at Bhandup Complex, Panjarapur, Vehar, and Tulsi.

The Bhandup Complex has two major treatment plants:

Old Plant → Capacity of 1910 ML/day (+10% overload)

New Plant (commissioned 2014) → Capacity of 900 ML/day (+10% overload)

Thus, the combined treatment capacity is 2810 ML/day (+10% overload), making it one of the largest water treatment plants in Asia.

Raw water is received from Upper Vaitarna (108”), Vaitarna (96”), Tansa East (72”), and Tansa West (72”) mains through a 5.5 m diameter underground tunnel from Gundavali to the inlet bay of Bhandup Complex. The raw water undergoes a series of treatments to remove impurities and is processed to meet potable water standards, ensuring safe supply for millions of citizens in Mumbai.

Acknowledgement :
We are gladly thankful to Prof. Pushkar Bharambe as well as Head of the Department, Dr. Ajit Patil Sir, who gave us great guidance regarding this training. A site visit was arranged to the Colaba Sewage Treatment Plant situated at Colaba.

Our main purpose for this visit was to get practical knowledge about the wastewater treatment plant process. By this visit, we became familiar with the industrial environment and gained knowledge about different units of a wastewater treatment plant. This experience will be especially useful in the upcoming subject Solid Waste Management, where understanding the working components of sewage plants is essential.

Focus Area :
The Colaba Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Mumbai, operational since April 2020, has a capacity of 37 million liters per day (MLD). Currently, the treated water is released into the sea via a 1.5 km pipeline. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is exploring options to repurpose this treated water for non-potable applications such as gardening, road cleaning, and vehicle washing.

In a move towards water sustainability, the BMC is upgrading the Colaba STP to an Advanced Tertiary Treatment Plant (ATTP). This initiative aims to further treat sewage to make it suitable for potable use. The project includes the construction of a 12 MLD full-scale ATTP and a 0.1 MLD pilot facility mounted on a trailer, designed for mobility to different wastewater treatment sites in Mumbai.

The ATTP will employ a multi-barrier approach, incorporating processes such as:

Ozone Treatment

Granular Activated Carbon / Biological Activated Carbon Filtration

Ultra Filtration

Reverse Osmosis

Ultraviolet Disinfection (with or without Advanced Oxidation Process)

Remineralization with Chlorine for residual management

This project is part of Mumbai’s broader strategy to diversify its water sources and address the challenges posed by climate change and population growth.

Process Observed :
During the visit, students studied the following stepwise treatment processes:

Screening: Removal of large objects (plastics, diapers, rags, sanitary items, face wipes, broken bottles, etc.) that may damage equipment.

Primary Treatment: Wastewater is collected in large tanks where solid matter settles; scrapers remove sludge from the tank surface.

Secondary Treatment: Water is transported to the clarifier where lime and alum are added to reduce pH levels.

Aeration Tank: Air is blown into the liquid to provide oxygen and promote microbial growth in the activated sludge process. Some sludge is recycled back, while the rest is pumped for further treatment.

Disinfection Unit: Chlorine and other methods are used to reduce pathogens harmful to human health.

Sludge Digestion: Residual sludge is treated in a belt filter press, and water is further disinfected with chlorine.

Conclusion :
From this visit, we gained valuable practical knowledge about wastewater treatment processes and the functioning of different plant components. The detailed observation of each treatment stage enhanced our understanding of real-time wastewater management, bridging the gap between theoretical learning and industrial practice.

The Traffic Volume Study was conducted on October 1, 2022 as part of the Transportation Lab Syllabus for the TE Civil Engineering program at the University of Mumbai.

The Kashimira Square Site was selected for the study and students counted six different types of vehicles during the survey.

RESULT:

Objectives: The IV was organized to help students in developing them as competent professional with a sense of responsibility and social sensitivity.
IV has imparted professional education using active learning techniques to transform the students to be competent and committed engineers meeting the current and future demands.

Staff Involved:
• 1. Dr. S. Ram Reddy – Principal
  2. Mr. Pravin Jangid- Faculty in charge
  3. Organizing Core Committee

Planning

1. On August 18th, Principal took meeting all Faculty in charge of all department in Faculty reading regarding industrial. Mr. Pravin Jangid AP, CMPN was allocated duty of getting tour operator.
2. On August 27th Comparative was given to Principal Sir, on basis of which Khushi Holiday Pvt ltd was chosen each was divided 4 industrial visit.
3. On October 4th planning draft was forwarded by Mr. Pravin Jangid for approval of industrial on basis of which Money collection and other process were started.
4. On January 2nd Principal called for a meeting of all the 7 Core committee along with the respective faculty accompanying the students to IV.
5. Dr. S. Ram Reddy reminded every faculty members and students about collecting the thanks letter and mometo from college.
6. He told that the students must follow the rules and regulations of the visitng industry in formals.
7. Faculty member was asked to update Mr. Pravin Jangid or Principal Sir about the progress

Conduct: Participant’s details

THE BACKGROUND

During the month of July, our faculty in-charge Prof. Pravin Jangid informed us that we have to conduct an Industrial Visit during the semester breaks so that students can get an opportunity to learn about the organizations, system and performance. To have some live and practical knowledge about process and production in the industries.
Accordingly, with the guidance of, our principal Dr. S. Ram Reddy, our faculty in-charge Prof. Pravin Jangid and feedback from the faculties of SLRTCE, we finalized a 9-day industrial visit tour to Chandigarh-Kullu-Manali-Kasol-Dalhousie-Khajjar-Amritsar.
The tour details were handled by the core committee of SLRTCE and accordingly 120 students registered to take part in the 9-day tour.
The tour was finalized from the dates 12th January to 22th January, 2020. The total tour cost (inclusive of all taxes) came to Rs. 12,500/- per student.

Learning

Planned learning during the Industrial Visit

SLRTCE Students’ Chapter organized the industrial visit with an intention to provide students an edge of industrial environment and its proceeding. Following are some of the core principles and knowledge which was intended to impart into the participating students:

• Fraternity: Students of different branches were taken together and were managing things together thus developing social qualities. They had their own beliefs, intelligence, faith and even religions. With lots of diversity in their thinking and ideas all the students enjoyed at same place by doing same thing. Students made new friends from different department thus breaking the ice between departmental
• Industrial Procedures: Visiting industries of different sectors, different in operation, product, vision, mission etc. gave students the knowledge of corporate world.
• Improved way of learning: Students learned industrial mass production and the advanced technologies involved in it apart from their syllabus and prescribed practical during their academic curriculum, this industrial visit made them think in other way

Outcome

Students build many qualities in them after the Industrial Visit

• Friendship and feel of belonging: As the students were staying together throughout the trip they developed a sense of unity and compatibility amongst them.
• Practical Knowledge: Students witnessed the industrial conditions of the place where they might work in They got to know how an industry works and what all things they need to be prepared when they enter in corporate world.
• New edge to learning: The students during their academics hardly get time to explode beyond their syllabus but due to an exposer of such IVs they developed a new edge in their learning process. Students started thinking that the processes and other fact that they study are much lagging with current scenario and they need to enhance their cone of learning so that they can be industry
• A common platform for interaction of Student with industry experts provided fruitful interactions, inputs were provided by Company person regarding insight of industrial world.

Conclusion:

Learning:

1. Through Industrial visit, we can provide an opportunity to current students to interact with person to know work culture in industry.
2. Students know the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice
3. Students uses the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice
4. Student can get idea in industry environment which can use in R&D and E cell

Scope for Improvement:

1. With changing trends and NBA requirement, such visit should be arranging for more number os students which can show overall development of students
2. Industrial visit can be brought into the system through ISO & its implementation at department/section levels with the opportunities for corrective & preventive actions.
3. Continuous communication system needs to be developed to make industrial visit a huge success
4. Industry should be communicated through T&P to have better communication and timely confirmation

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