A multimillion dollar stormwater drain and pumping solution for the flood prone Portside and Te Maire industrial precincts is approved by Tauranga City Council.

The Mount Maunganui industrial area has experienced several floods in the last couple of years with 20 buildings affected.

Protecting the Te Maire and Portside Drive catchments is expected to cost about $20 million – with the costs staged.

Twin 1800mm diameter gravity fed stormwater drains pipes will be laid in the first stage with pumps to be added later.

The first stage is estimated to costs $13 million, the two pumping stations are estimated to cost between $4 and $4.5 million each.

In the coming financial year $700,000 is allocated for the project's design stages with the rest of the costs staged over a five year period.

The current estimate is reduced from a Beca report that in 2009 estimated it would cost $85 million to protect all the buildings in the catchment from a 50 year storm event.

Since that report was published there have been three storms that resulted in flooded buildings in the catchment

Affected building owners lodged annual plan submissions. An earlier request to upgrade the Portside Drive stormwater pond was declined

Another submission requested the Portside Drive pond and nearby open drains be enlarged at an estimated costs of $6.6 million.

The outcome was council requested a further investigation into potential solutions, which was delivered at the last council meeting for the year by drainage services manager Graeme Dohnt.

The Mount Maunganui stormwater works are part of a $55 million budgeted for the Stormwater Capital Works Bulk Fund over the next 10 years in the Ten Year Plan.