Work on hold due to lockdown, newer Gurugram sectors will have to wait for piped water

Residents of many new Gurugram sectors are growing increasingly worried, with private tanker facilities also having reduced their supply in the absence of labour.

The ongoing lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 has indefinitely delayed piped water connections to the city’s newer sectors, 81 to 99, which currently rely on private tankers and borewells.

The residential complexes in the new sectors are dependent on private tankers and borewells for water supply. (HT File / Representational Photo)

With many labourers returning to their hometowns, officials of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) said that the work of laying distribution pipelines in newer sectors, which was previously set to be completed by June, has been suspended.

The GMDA was working on a temporary arrangement to supply water from its water treatment plant in Chandu Budera by May. Pradeep Kumar, chief engineer, GMDA, said, “The work to lay pipelines in this area was supposed to be completed before the onset of summer, but as of now, we are unable to state by when this can happen. Most of the labourers involved in the project have returned to their houses in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, and there is not enough manpower available.”

Meanwhile, sectors 73 to 80 and 100 to 115, which were to receive piped canal water by the year-end, will also likely have to wait at least till next summer. “The work to lay pipelines in these areas is more than 70% complete, but has been held up. It will resume when labour becomes available again,” an official in the GMDA’s infrastructure division, requesting anonymity, said.

“The construction of a boosting station in Sector 72, which was to supply water to newer sectors, will also be delayed. We do not know by how long,” the official said.

Despite the area’s real estate boom, which started around 2010, basic infrastructure, such as sewer lines, water supply and roads (which were transferred to the GMDA from the Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran) are yet to be developed.