Gurgaon: Huda water pipeline burst hits supply to NH-8 areas

Areas affected by the pipeline burst include Sector 29, all residential colonies and high-rise apartment complexes on the MG Road, Chakkarpur village, DLF phases 1 and 2, and Sushant Lok-1

The water pipeline at the Haryana Urban Development Corporation’s (Huda) Sector 16 boosting station burst late on Monday night affecting supply in areas to the left of the National Highway-8 (NH-8).

Huda officials said that the pipeline may have burst because the pipes had gotten old and corroded. (Parveen Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Officials said that the pipeline may have burst because the pipes had become old and corroded. The repair work was underway when the edition went to print. Officials added that residents could expect to get water supply in the morning on Wednesday.

“The water pipeline have been damaged as it was very old; it had not been changed since the year 1999. We have informed the residents of Zone 29 about the reason for disruption in supply,” Huda junior engineer SS Gulia said.

Areas that are covered under Zone 29 include Sector 29, all residential colonies and high-rise apartment complexes on the MG Road, Chakkarpur village, DLF phases 1 and 2, and Sushant Lok-1.

The disruption comes as the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), on January 1, took the charge of supplying water across the city from the MCG. Residents, many of whom are waiting for the MCG to take over the civic maintenance of their privately developed colonies from Huda, had hoped the transfer would improve their quality of life.

In the first week of this month, the GMDA had started the procedure to replace the master pipelines and issued an alert that the work is expected to culminate by January 5. However, the work is yet to get completed.

The GMDA had consented to replace the old 900mm-wide pipeline that had developed leaks at multiple points, leading to deposition of water on the Basai road, with new 1300mm-wide pipes.

Read I Gurgaon: Huda’s main water pipeline bursts, fresh crisis looms

Last year, water supply lines in different parts of the city burst six times, four times in the summers and once in November.

Dr AK Nagpal, president of Sushant Lok-1 residents’ welfare association (RWA), said, “The water supply is erratic and at low pressure. We have no idea about the extent of damage to the pipeline. But, if it is indeed significant then we fear the supply may worsen. Forcing us to depend on private tankers to meet our daily needs.”

“The MCG took over the supply of water inside the colony last September, but hardly took any measures to improve the infrastructure; they just installed some electricity metres,” Sudhir Sachdeva, a member of the collegium of Sushant Lok RWA, said.

On the other side, the abysmal state of civic affairs means residents in most colonies are also well-prepared to bide by this crisis with storage tanks holding enough water to last a few days.

“There is always a shortage of water in the city, and the situation is much worse in the summers. We have storage tanks, but we have urged the civic authorities multiple times to upgrade the infrastructure to avoid such situations altogether. But all our requests have fallen on deaf ears,” Rajeev Sinha, president of Essel Tower RWA, said.