Whoosh! There goes today’s water supply for South Delhi

Delhi Jal Board’s old problem burst out of the ground — again. An old and withering water pipeline connected to the 140 million-gallons-per-day Sonia Vihar water treatment plant burst open on Monday — the third time in three months — creating a virtual fountain on Mahatma Gandhi Marg.

Delhi Jal Board’s old problem burst out of the ground — again — on Monday. An old and withering water pipeline connected to the 140 million-gallons-per-day Sonia Vihar water treatment plant burst open on Monday — the third time in three months — creating a virtual fountain on Mahatma Gandhi Marg.

HT Image

This time, it was a DJB excavating machine that accidentally damaged the pipeline.

Traffic on the stretch was brought to a crawl as water gushing out from the cracks in the pipe submerged a sizeable portion of the ring road as well.

The problem compounded because the incident occurred around the same time as the office rush was picking up. The pipeline in question is what Sonia Vihar water treatment plant uses to supply water to South Delhi neighbourhoods. It is one of the biggest and oldest water supply channels of the city, commissioned in 1984 for the Bhagirathi water treatment plant. "It has become a headache for us," said RK Garg, member (water supply), DJB.

"We are in the process of replacing the entire pipe. Nearly 70 per cent of the work is complete. The remaining will be done in a couple of months". Garg said that in the past few months, the pipeline had burst open "a countless number of times" due to multiple reasons. "Now I have lost count."

While the DJB said it was carrying on repair work, the Sonia Vihar plant would be shut for a few hours on Tuesday to isolate the damaged pipe and repair it. Water in South Delhi would be erratic, officials said.

The traffic was especially grim on Mathura Road as vehicles moving towards Ambedkar Bus Depot were blocked for over half an hour.

"Delhi roads cannot seem to keep water off themselves, whatever may be the reason," said Vijay Arora, who was on his way to Okhla.