This is an account of the site visits made by Milind Sohoni, 
Mr. Kalekar and Mr. Raghu.

The trip began at 9:45am. It was a hot and humid day with patchy
cloud cover.

1. We first proceeded to Belachiwadi and 
spoke to a 'sabhasad' of the gram panchayat. He told us of an 
alternative site for the dam. We decided to visit the site right away
and he and his nephew accompanied us there. 

The site is about 1.5km south-east of belachiwadi and on the route 
to padar-killa. The path climbs a hill (about 50 ft) right on the 
edge 
of the fields of belachiwadi. It then proceeds SSE and further climbs 
another 50ft over undulating lands. We come to a 'maalraan' on a hill 
top. There is a stream running west, right below, about 50ft. This is 
the proposed site. Further upstream is a small clearing into which 2-3
streams empty, and which 
would make a nice pocket for the water. The stream follows 
a narrow and winding gully making its way down and west. 
The nothern flank is the hillock on which we stand. The opposite side 
is a higher hill and is about 40m away as the crow flies. The site 
reminds us of choudharwadi on a slightly smaller scale. 

We estimate the height of a dam to be about 8m and width of 40m plus 
an additional spillway of 20m. The storage should extend upto 100m 
easily in length and 80m in breadth, 
behind the dam and should be relatively flat.

We follow the stream and come across other 'mallraan's and then some 
fields. The 'sabhasad' claimed that there was a truck-able road 
from the south side, which we did not visit.

Belachiwadi is a Mahadev-Koli settlement of about 20 households. 
Other benefeciaries are Kathewadi (20 households, 1.5km), and 
Amberpada (30 households, 2km). 

The visit ended at 12:30pm.

2. After lunch at Kashele, we peoceeded at 1:30pm 
along the Kashele-Murbad road
for about 16km. Just short of Kalamb, we took a right turn for 
Sutarpada. This is a Thakur village of about 25 households. 
A 2km trek eastwards from here across sparsely forested and hilly 
terrain took us to Banachiwadi. This is a small 
Thakur village at the hilltop of 
about 10 households. Their current water source is about 2km away 
from a borewell in Borichiwadi. 

The terrain is now fairly wooded and the site is about 1.5km and 80ft 
down from Banachiwadi. We came to a stream running roughly west 
towards Sutarpada and then into the stream which flows past the 
Academy. The stream bed is wide (10m) with moderately sloping flanks 
on either side. 
Walking on the stream bed, we notice several sites which 
may be suitably exploited. A problem is that while the north bank
is 'owned' by the village, the south bank is forest land. 

Beneficiaries include Sutarpada, Bhaguchiwadi and Umbarkhamb.
Truck access to the site is possible but slightly rough. 

We estimate the height of a dam to be about 8m and width of 50m plus 
an additional spillway of 20m. The storage should extend upto 120m 
in length and 40m in breadth, behind the dam. 

The visit ended at 3:45 but coming back to Sutarpada took another 45
minutes. 

3. We proceeded back along the Murbad-Kashele road towards Kashele.
At the village Gudwan, we took a left to approach Gudwanwadi, roughly
2km from Gudwan. This a Thakur billage with about 30 households. 
The water situation here is acute with womenfolk travelling more than
3km for drinking water. The site is 0.5km south of the village and 
about 50ft down. The stream in question has two small 
soil-conservation dams, the first which is 3m in height and masonry, 
and the second about 7m in height and earthen. The smaller one 
is downstream is completely useless as far as storage is concerned. 
The higher earthen dam and is about 200m upstream and seems a bit
dangerously poised. There is a fast eroding spillway which has 
decreased the storage to about 3m, and seems to impinge on the dam 
structure as well.

The proposed dam site lies somewhere in the middle and is reminiscent
of the second belachiwadi site, but is somewhat better. The stream bed
is wide and the flanks not too high. There is a further suspicion
of 'muram' lying below the stream bed and therefore leakage.
There are a couple to trial pits from earlier excavation. 

We estimate the height of a dam to be about 6m and width of 50m plus 
an additional spillway of 20m. The storage should extend upto 80m 
in length and 60m in breadth, behind the dam. 

There should be very good truck access. The site is not too good
but the need is acute. Beneficiaries include gudwan and borivili.

The trip ended at 6pm.