Chandrawal water plant: supply restored nine days later

The Delhi Jal Board has restored full water supply from the Chandrawal treatment plant after flooding halted operations for nine days.

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said on Monday that it has restored full 58 million gallons per day (MGD) supply from Phase 2 of the Chandrawal water treatment plant, nine days after the section was flooded, halting operations at the facility.

Water minister Parvesh Verma said all operations have been restored and the system stabilised (HT)

Water minister Parvesh Verma said all operations have been restored and the system stabilised. “I wish to inform that the Chandrawal plant is now 100% operational. We had earlier tried to make it fully operational twice, but its systems continued to face technical issues. Wherever supply was affected, we increased the number of tankers,” he said.

The current episode began March 22 when operations at Chandrawal WTP-II halted after a major 600 mm diameter backwash pipeline near the pump house was damaged, causing severe waterlogging.

The city’s oldest plant has seen multiple outages over the past year due to repair works, including maintenance in July and August 2024, a leakage in the main rising supply line in November, and valve damage in August.

A DJB official said legacy motors and decades-old electrical equipment have spare parts that are not readily available, while moisture in pumps has led to multiple faults causing tripping. “These are custom-made motors. We had to seek help from certain manufacturers in Meerut. This is a very old plant. The new 105 MGD Chandrawal plant is ready, and once operational, these issues will not be faced,” the official added.