MUMBAI, May 19 -- After sanctioning the Gargai drinking water project for Mumbai, the state water resources department has come up with a tender to acquire land for the Kalu water supply project in Thane district. More than 999 hectares of forest land and 1,260 hectares of private land will be acquired for the project. The exact number of trees to be cut is still not known. Ravi Pawar, executive engineer of the irrigation department's Bhatsa water supply project, said that four firms had applied for the tender. "The project will cost Rs.4,000 crore and the costs will be borne by MMRDA," he said. "Six villages will be fully acquired and five others will be partially acquired. We have started the process of acquiring the land." In mid-April, deputy CM Eknath Shinde, who is also Thane's guardian minister, had held a meeting to review the project's progress and asked officials to complete it in the stipulated time. Water resources minister Girish Mahajan attended the meeting along with the Palghar and Thane collectors. The Palghar collectorate was told to look for land for compensatory afforestation. The Kalu project will supply water to the eastern sub-region of MMR. The project is designed to provide 1,140 million litres of water and will be used to augment the water supply of Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalyan-Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Ambernath and Kulgaon-Badlapur municipal corporations/councils. The dam construction work was earlier executed by the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation's water resources department but was stayed from March 2, 2012. The dam will fully submerge eight villages and partially submerge 10 others along with connecting village roads. In all, 18,128 people from all the villages will be affected. In March, CM Devendra Fadnavis cleared the Gargai water supply project inside the Tansa wildlife sanctuary for Mumbai's water needs. Nearly 658 hectares of forest land in the Tansa wildlife sanctuary (plus 186 hectares of private land) will be submerged. The forest department's objections to the project were shot down. Environmentalist D Stalin of NGO Vanashakti said it was "heart-wrenching" to witness the non-stop onslaught on forests. "The greed to make money has overcome the need to conserve alongside development," he said. "At this rate, we will have less than 15% forests left in the next decade." Stalin said that "greenwashing" by using terms like "compensatory afforestation" was "absolute rubbish". "Forests are created over centuries, and ecosystems cannot be compensated for by using haphazard plantations that exist only on paper," he said. "Ninety percent of the so-called saplings perish in the third year while the contractor-politician nexus laughs all the way to the bank. This certainly is not sustainable development."...