Mumbai: Work at Bhandup complex complete, water supply resumes; BMC appeals to boil water before drinking

Mumbai: After working on technical hurdles, the BMC has finally finished the work of a major connection of a 4000mm pipeline to the water treatment plant at its Bhandup complex. The water supply that was disconnected during the period of work in 12 civic wards will resume by Tuesday midnight. The filtration plant which has the capacity to process 1,910 million litres (ML) of water daily was shut for 24 hours for the work, for the first time in the last 42 years, a civic official said.

The BMC supplies 3,850 ML of water daily to the city from seven lakes. Water to a major part of the city is supplied through the water treatment plant at the Bhandup complex. The civic body had undertaken the work of connecting the additional channel, installing valves on various pipelines connected to the complex and repairing leakages to improve the water supply. The work was started on Monday morning and expected to be completed in 24 hours, but was delayed for eight hours due to technical hurdles, said the civic official.

“The filtration plant was closed for the first time in 42 years so we had to work on several aspects. The de-watering process took time and we had to work on some of the old valves. Teams of engineers were formed to carry out the work at eight major locations at the Bhandup complex and at 30 locations in the city and western suburbs,” a civic official from the hydraulics department said, adding that around 500 labourers and technicians, along with 100 engineers were on site since Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Additional Municipal Commissioner (projects) P Velarasu took a review of the work on Tuesday afternoon. Civic wards like K-East (Jogeshwari East, Andheri East, Vile Parle east) K-West (Andheri West, Vile Parle West, Juhu), P-South (Goregaon), P-North (Malad), R-South (Kandivali), R-Central (Borivali), R-North (Dahisar), H-East (Bandra East, Khar East, Santacruz East) and H-West (Bandra West, Khar West, Santacruz West) areas did not receive water owing to the work.