BMC’s defunct swimming pool at Ghatkopar to get state-of-the-art makeover

The civic-run swimming pool at Ghatkopar, which has been closed since 2019, will soon be converted into a state-of-the-art sports complex with the city’s first shooting range. A private architect, Shashank Mehendale, had bagged the reconstruction project from the gardens department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) six months ago.

Deputy municipal commissioner Kishor Gandhi said, “We had a meeting with our additional commissioner and the design was approved by our bosses. It has been sent to the building proposal department for the final nod. We will work out the cost later.”

The new complex will have courts for boxing, basketball, badminton, volleyball, squash, and table tennis and also a gymnasium, Gandhi said, adding there will also be a room for carrom and cards.

Lions municipal swimming pool was opened in 1972. When it started leaking heavily, the members approached then commissioner Ajoy Mehta. Repairs were carried out three times but as the problem persisted, the BMC had to close down the structure, except a hall which is let out for private parties. Around 5,000-odd members were told to use the swimming pool at Chembur.

Speaking to HT, Mehendale said a swimming pool will now come up on top of the five-storey structure. “We have designed a multi-sports arena and this will be first of its kind in eastern suburbs. The tender will be finalised in 15 days. The complex will also have the first shooting range in Mumbai.”

While the original swimming pool was a semi-Olympic one (25-metre-long), the proposed one will be of an Olympic size (50 metres in length).

Ghatkopar resident Naresh Mehta, who has been a member since its inauguration, said, “In October, some members also met suburban guardian minister Mangalprabhat Lodha when he visited N Ward. We told him that the pool needed to be reconstructed at the earliest and he assured us that tenders would be invited after Diwali. But nothing has happened so far.”

The 77-year-old member also said that the BMC had a bad track record of reconstructing pools. “It took nearly seven years to rebuild the Dadar pool.”