Kajauli waterworks: Chandigarh not getting additional water supply for past three days

Fresh snag hits the project days after Badnore inaugurated it, repair work yet to start

For three days now, the city is not getting additional two-hour water supply after a fresh snag hit Phase 5,6 of Kajauli water works pipeline near Morinda on October 2.

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In an embarrassment to municipal corporation (MC) that increased the water supply from 8 to 10 hours a week ago after Punjab governor-cum-UT administrator VP Singh Badnore inaugurated the ₹200-crore project on September 28.

An additional 29 MGD of canal water, increased the surface water capacity to 87 MGD. Fresh disruption has also hit Panchkula and Chandimandir Cantonment as they both were getting 3 MGD each.

Repair work may take a week

Despite 72 hours to disruption, the repair work has not started yet. A senior MC official said, they have been pursuing the matter with Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) as they had laid the pipeline.

GMADA superintending engineer Davinder Singh said, “The leakage has developed on 50-meter pipeline stretch, commissioned by Ambala division of Northern railways since the area fell in their jurisdiction.We have written to senior divisional engineer, Ambala division, Bajrang Goel, to speed up the repair work.”

Meanwhile, Goel has sought GMADA’s cooperation to plug the leakage as the railway agency staff from Delhi will take time to reach here and fix the problem.

Surprisingly, the latest leakage — just 6 meter away from joint pipeline — is the second snag in the same area in last five months. The first leakage occurred in April when the project was in trial stage. “First time too, the leakage could not be rectified for over a month as the railway engineers put entire blame on us. It was after the governor’s intervention, the repair work speeded up. We will have to approach him if the railways don’t start at the earliest,” a GMADA official said.