Commencement of the Reservoir, in the Valley
of Vehar, Island of Salsette, [India], 1856. 'The town...of Bombay, the
population of which is estimated at about half a million, are so badly
supplied with water that, when the annual rains are deficient in
quantity, the place is subjected to all the horrors of drought...To
remedy this wretched state of affairs...it has been resolved to form a
vast reservoir in the island of Salsette, now joined to...Bombay by the
railway viaduct. The valley of Kehar, embosomed in hills, is to be
converted into a lake by means of embankments at its embouchure; and