BHOPAL: Almost one third of the population of the state capital did not receive water supply for a consecutive second day on Wednesday, due to leakage in the supply pipeline.
The leakage was detected in the pipeline at three spots, and the maintenance work was carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday. This is the seventh occasion this year, when water supply has been hit in these areas due to this reason.
The three-decades-old pipeline has gone dilapidated and bursts frequently leading to disruption in water supply to the areas connected from Kolar plant. In summers the situation becomes terrible when water supply is hit.
The Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) had begun replacement of this pipeline in 2017 and the project was supposed to reach completion by end of 2019. However, even after a little less than two years of the project’s deadline, the work is pending.
The project was started under AMRUT scheme and Rs 138 crores were sanctioned for it. The work began in September 2017 and two years of deadline was fixed for the replacement work. It kept on getting delayed and deadline extension was done four times due to one or the other reason.
New pipeline to minimize the problem: BMC has paid over Rs 130 crores for the project but the firm TATA Sons has failed to complete it. One of the reasons for frequent leakage and pipeline bursts, is extra water being fetched from the Kolar filter plant, than its capacity. The capacity of Kolar Plant is 34 MGD water in a day but the civic body uses the old pipeline for supplying 42 MGD water. If the civic body starts using the new pipeline, the problem may be minimized.
Supply resumed: Executive engineer and in-charge of Kolar project, Avinash Shrivastav says that the leakage has been fixed and water supply is resumed by Wednesday evening.
