Fingers crossed: Pipeline fixed, water to be back in taps today

Even as residents of some western and central suburbs, suffered a third day in a row without water supply - owing to damage of an inlet from Tansa to Veravali reservoir on the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road on Wednesday night during Metro piling work - there's some good news. The civic body on Saturday said that regular water supply will be restored in all areas by Sunday morning.

The BMC tweeted late on Saturday: "Good News! The pipeline restored & the manhole closed! Having completed the high pressure work, we are now ready to release very high pressure water through the pipe to fill the water in the reservoir!"

Repair work being carried out on the pipeline. Pics/Anurag Ahire

Elected representatives claimed that the BMC took over 48 hours to detect leakage and identify the problem. And even the BMC had tweeted stating that civic staff had to venture 10 meters deep into the ground to reach the pipeline and identify the damage and fix it.

Residents in the meanwhile have been struggling without water since Thursday and waiting for water tankers despite BMC making tanker services free for areas from Jogeshwari to Bandra and Ghatkopar, Kurla. But Chief Hydraulic Engineer Ajay Rathore confirmed that the leakage has been fixed and supply will resume by Sunday.

Asif Zakaria, Congress corporator from Bandra, said, referring to the charge that the BMC's map to the MMRDA was incorrect which led to them damaging the pipeline,
"There is unavailability of bottled water, and it is getting difficult to source tankers as well. The BMC should have mapped their underground utilities carefully as it has cost lakhs of citizens."

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