Major underground leak cause of water pressure drop in Bandra, Khar: BMC

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has detected a major underground leak in Bandra, causing low water pressure in the H-west ward. Repair works are underway.

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was finally able to detect the cause of the drop in water pressure in the H-west ward in Bandra-Khar areas after a month wherein an investigation revealed a major underground leak on 24th Road in Bandra near Patwardhan Park. The repair works were scheduled on Friday due to which the water supply to Khar was stopped.

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The BMC said on Friday that all water supplies to the H west ward will continue at low pressure, and any further changes to the supply schedule will be updated after excavation and assessment of the extent of damage to the pipeline.

“We have detected a major underground leakage near Patwardhan Park. The sounding instrument helped detect this major leakage. So, we stopped the water supply for H west ward. Khar Danda, Khar areas will not get water. The repairs will be completed by midnight or 1am,” a civic official from the H-west ward’s hydraulic department said.

Former Bandra corporator Asif Zakaria, however, said that he doesn’t think leakage is the root cause for low pressure in this ward. “The problem is that normally the H west ward needs 10-12 pounds of supply pressure by Veravalli or through the Mahim shaft. However, the current pressure is 3-4 pounds,” said Zakaria, adding that residents have been complaining and various areas of Bandra have been suffering for a month.

Because the pressure is low, areas like Station Road, SV Road, Almeida Park, Gaothan of Chapel Road, Varoda Road, Kanthwadi, Rizvi complex, and Shirley Rajan are suffering as these areas get a boosting from Pali Hill reservoir.

“Because of low pressure, the reservoir levels are low, which works on gravity. This has been happening for more than a month. The hydraulic engineer claimed that they are giving H West the required water pressure. Now, they have checked the internal network line and detected a leakage at 24th Road. This is not the reason for low pressure. There is an acute problem of water even when a 10% water cut was announced and then revoked. Yesterday, the pressure was 8 pounds. How can there be high pressure if there was a leakage? Let us see what happens. The source of supply pressure is low,” added Zakaria.

When queried about the low-pressure supply in Bandra’s reservoir, the civic official said they will first attend to the leakage which they believe is the major cause for the low water supply in H west ward and if the pressure doesn’t improve after rectification of leakage, they will think about finding another solution.