You will get less water next week

Western suburbs from Malad to Borivli will get less water for five days between March 2 and 7.

Western suburbs from Malad to Borivli will get less water for five days between March 2 and 7.

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will repair an underground water supply tunnel at Malad, which was recently damaged. Repairs will be carried out between the morning of March 2 and the midnight of March 7.

The 30-mm diameter tunnel that is 80-metre deep, was punctured on February 14 due to illegal digging for a borewell.Two persons were arrested for this.

The 12-km tunnel supplies water to Malad, Goregaon, Kandivli and Jogeshwari. “We will have to inspect the extent of damage before beginning to repair the tunnel from inside. There is no option but to stop supply,” said a civic official requesting anonymity. Water supply will be partial or minimal for these five days.

As the BMC was planning how to fix the tunnel in Malad, a joint in a 24-inch water main at Tansa cracked open at Andheri (West) on Friday, allegedly due to digging by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).

The cast iron joint of the distribution pipe that burst was taken up for repairs. BMC officials have once again blamed MSRDC. “The MSRDC was digging the road, when it they hit the pipeline underground,” said chief hydraulic engineer Vinay Deshpande. “This caused the joint to get dislocated.”

Deshpande said if the pipe had broken during supply hours, a lot of water would have been lost and supply would have been affected.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and MSRDC have broken at least 55 water pipelines in the last five years, the BMC has claimed.

Subhash Nage, executive engineer of MSRDC, said the contractors were digging the road to map underground utilities. “They happened to dislocate the bend [in the pipe] and pressure was created on the pipeline,” said Nage.