Khande Golivali Wastewater Treatment Plant, Ulhasnagar, Maharashtra

Khande Golivali is a wastewater treatment plant located in Ulhasnagar, a city in the Thane district of Maharashtra, India. The facility serves a population of about 187,000 and has a designed capacity of 1.00 million liters per day, indicating it is a medium-to-large agglomeration under Indian urban wastewater management standards. As an operational plant in Maharashtra, it falls under India's regulatory framework for water pollution control, which includes the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 and the Environment Protection Act of 1986. Plants serving populations over 100,000 are typically required to provide secondary treatment, with some moving toward tertiary treatment for water reuse in water-stressed regions. The plant's treated effluent likely discharges into local water bodies that drain into the Ulhas River, which flows westward into the Arabian Sea near Mumbai. This region is ecologically significant, supporting estuarine and coastal ecosystems, and the plant plays a key role in reducing pollution loads to protect downstream water quality and biodiversity.

The plant's treated wastewater likely enters the Ulhas River system, which flows through Thane and Mumbai before emptying into the Arabian Sea. This coastal region supports diverse aquatic life, including fish and migratory birds, and is important for local fisheries. The Ulhas River estuary is a sensitive ecosystem that benefits from effective wastewater treatment to prevent eutrophication and contamination.