State agency's pipe bursts, BMC fixes it

A water pipeline, laid by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), burst inside a housing colony near Vashi Naka in Chembur. A HT Correspondent reports.

A water pipeline, laid by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), burst inside a housing colony near Vashi Naka in Chembur.

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And it is the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation that is repairing it.

The pipeline supplied water to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority colony of 140 buildings.

This is the first case of an MMRDA pipeline bursting. The pipeline, measuring 32 inches in diameter, was laid eight years ago to supply water to 25,000 residents settled here as project affected persons.

The underground pipeline was laid in the compound of Manish-Vinay Chembur Cooperative Housing Society. It burst on Saturday morning.

Joint Project Director of MMRDA, Milind Kawathkar, said, "Though we laid the line, the civic body has repaired it and supply will be restored by Sunday morning."

Vinay Deshpande, head of the BMC's water department, however said the corporation will recover the cost of repairs from the MMRDA.

"We helped them because they don't have any system of repair the line," he said.

Gino Jose a resident of Manish-Vinay society said, "We have allowed repairs only after an assurance from MMRDA that it would shift the line outside our premises because it can be dangerous to the buildings' piling."

Additional Municipal Commissioner, Anil Diggikar, said BMC officials will be suspended if they do not attend to the leakage within 48 hours.

Shiv Sena corporator, Sunil Prabhu, and others claimed that the water department was not attending to pipe bursts in time.