Mumbai: Metro work hits water pipe leaving Andheri high and dry

During the drilling work of Metro 6 line, the 1,800 mm Veravali pipeline got punctured

As taps run dry in most of Andheri, residents have been forced to turn to water tankers that come at exorbitant rates. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is, however, sure that work of repairing the broken pipeline will be completed by Sunday midnight and water supply will be restored from Monday morning.

During the drilling work of Metro 6 line, the 1,800 mm Veravali pipeline got punctured on Thursday at Andheri SEEPZ gate number 3. This resulted in water supply being stopped in most parts of Andheri East and West and Bandra East and West. Other part of the city faced some water shortage too. Since Friday, parts of Ghatkopar and Bhandup and Powai faced a water shortage. BMC had started repairing the pipeline on Friday, which was supposed to be complete by Sunday afternoon.

"Due to some technical reasons and soil around the water main being very loose, the work had to be conducted slowly. Water supply will be restored from Monday morning," said BMC official. Meanwhile, a resident of Andheri West Dhaval Shah said, "We have been facing a water cut for the last three days. On Saturday, we had to buy tanker water for which we paid Rs 4,000 for a 10,000-litre tanker. In some parts, the rate of non-potable water tankers has risen by more than R3,000. Also, tankers are hard to come by as demand has risen across the city. If we don't get water from Monday, we will have to buy another tanker.

A resident of Evershine Cosmic, Madhu Vannier, said, "We bought tanker water on Saturday at the cost of R3,800. But even after that we had to buy bottles of drinking water. A resident of Khar West said that his society too had to buy tanker water at Rs 4,000 a tanker.