After five-day halt, Gurugram water supply to normalise from Wednesday

Repairs at Chandu Budhera plant were delayed by flooding and pressure failure, forcing residents to rely on tankers across multiple sectors.

After a five-day disruption affecting nearly half of the city, water supply in Gurugram is set to normalise on Wednesday, GMDA officials said on Tuesday evening. Welding work on the damaged master pipeline at the Chandu Budhera water treatment plant has been completed and sluice gates are being opened, a GMDA spokesperson said on Tuesday evening, adding that it would take eight to 12 hours for water to reach households.

A damaged valve and temperature-linked pipe shrinkage disrupted 400 MLD supply, triggering protests and sharp criticism over communication lapses. (GMDA/X)

The prolonged disruption forced residents across several sectors and colonies to rely on private tankers, with many housing societies saying they incurred heavy expenses to arrange emergency water supplies.

The spokesperson said teams have opened the sluice gates to resume water supply. The shortage began on Friday afternoon after a large valve of the master water pipeline was damaged at the Chandu Budhera plant, leading to flooding of the entire treatment facility. GMDA officials said the iron pipeline was damaged due to a dip in temperature, which caused the pipe to shrink.

GMDA officials said the pipeline had been repaired on Monday night but failed to withstand pressure after water was released, requiring repairs to be restarted from scratch. They added that the major hurdle in repairing the valve and pipeline was water accumulation at the site due to a high water table. They said the site remained flooded, and heavy machinery, including fire tenders, was deployed to dewater the area. The GMDA on Tuesday evening said on X, “Dear Citizens, welding work on the pipeline is currently underway. The team is making all efforts to restore the water supply by 8:00 PM today. We thank you for your patience and cooperation.”

“The valve got disjointed because of a change in the temperature, and due to the damage to the pipeline, the entire water supply network has suffered at Chandu Budhera…” Abhinav Verma, executive engineer, GMDA, who has been overseeing the repair work at the Chandu Budhera plant, told HT on Monday. Verma said repair work was delayed due to water accumulation at the damaged site and the need for dewatering the flooded area for continuing repair works.

On Tuesday afternoon, residents of Sector 10 staged a protest outside the GMDA office, demanding an emergency tanker supply until repairs were completed. Protesters also called upon GMDA chief executive officer PC Meena to take action against officials, alleging failure to repair the pipeline network and inadequate communication on the water supply situation.

On communication with residents, Verma told HT on Monday that junior officials were regularly updating RWAs and locals on the ground situation.

Residents also voiced anger on social media, claiming it was the first time Gurugram had gone without a water supply for five consecutive days. Sunil Sheoran, a resident, wrote on X, “GMDA is not able to fix the pipeline. It’s a dark day in the history of Haryana that the entire Gurgaon is without water after 4 days.” Another resident, Mohit Mathur, wrote, “Try to complete it by 8 tonight; at least we get water in the early morning of the 14th. A very dampened Lohri for Gurgaon.”

According to residents, water supply was affected in Old Gurugram and areas such as Madanpuri, Manohar Nagar, Baldev Nagar, New Colony, Jyoti Park, Arjun Nagar, Ram Nagar, Vijay Park, Subhash Nagar, Nai Abadi, Jacobpura, Shivpuri, Bhim Nagar, Ambedkar Colony, Devi Lal Nagar, Sector-7 Extension, Sector-7 and Sector-4. Residents also said water supply was affected in several sectors, from Sector 1 to Sector 23, and in developing sectors of the city.

The Chandu Budhera plant supplies around 400 million litres per day (MLD) of water to the city, while another 270 MLD is supplied from the Basai plant. Officials said the two plants are interlinked, and disruption at one affected operations at the other.

To prevent future crises, GMDA CEO PC Meena said, “An alternative pipeline would be laid to create a ring main system, with an expert to be appointed to prepare the plan.”