E-Paper
60 hours, 150 BMC men, 1 camera: Water pipeline leak gets finally fixed
MUMBAI
MUMBAI
It took 60 hours, 50 engineers, 100 labourers and a high-end camera to fix the leak in the Veravali reservoir water pipeline, near Mahakali caves, Andheri East, which left parts of the city between Bandra and Jogeshwari, Kurla and Ghatkopar without water for the past three days.
The leak in the pipeline, owing to Metro construction work, was reported on Wednesday, but was spotted only on Saturday with the help of the camera. Once detected, the workers had to dig a 40-ft hole 50m away from the spot. “It was a very difficult operation. We had to send four workers 40-ft deep. From there, they had to walk for 50m to reach the spot and fix the leak by welding the pipeline. We had around 150 workers and engineers working on the spot,” Ajay Rathod, chief engineer of BMC’s hydraulics department.
The workers had to be sent in with sufficient apparatus for oxygen supply to ensure they don’t suffocate. “The leak has been fixed now and all areas near the pipeline started to get water supply by Sunday evening. We have always asked the Metro authorities to be cautious to avoid such incidents. However, they claimed they were not informed about this particular water utility. We will check and also levy fine, if we come across any wrongdoing in the way they handled the work,” he said.
Some areas still complained that the water supply was not resumed by evening. “We follow a particular cycle to supply water to different areas in the city as we have to maintain the water pressure. All can’t be supplied water at the same time. Those who have not got water supply yet, will get the same by today evening or midnight,” said a BMC official.
The BMC also claimed they arranged for water tankers for some areas on Saturday, but residents refuted it. “We did not get any tanker supplying water to our society, and there was no water for cooking or other basic necessities in our home since Friday. I had to shift to Kandivli to my relatives’ house along with my wife and daughter,” said Abhishek Marwah, a DN Nagar resident
Another resident of Vile Parle, Girish Karve, said, “The water tanker suppliers we called were either overcharging or were claiming they were already hired by the BMC.”
Meanwhile, the BMC took to Twitter only on Sunday morning requesting citizens to bear with the timings of water supply. BMC tweeted, “Four reservoirs get filled with water. The water filled, is given to some area with adequate pressure for 2-3 hours to make water reach till tail end of the area. The reservoirs get again filled . Again few areas get supplied with good pressure for 2-3 hours till tail end.”
The tweet added, “It is complex interplay of volumes, pressure , size of area to be covered and also continuous replacement of water in reservoirs. So Mumbaikars are requested to bear with scheduled release of water.”
Aparna Gokhale, a resident of Andheri (East), said, “Going without water for three days is not easy. However, as we have sewage treatment plant in place, we could use that water for toilets. The colony’s managing committee had to make separate arrangements for drinking water.”
Papiya Bhattacharjee, another Andheri resident, said, “We decided to shift half of our family members to our relatives’ place. Our society tried but couldn’t get water tankers.”
