Work on Mumbai pipelines to go on through the monsoon

While the civic body’s unfilled potholes and dirty stormwater drains lead to trouble every monsoon, there’s one more cause this year – work on the 24x7 water supply project. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to continue work on water pipelines in Bandra, Santacruz, Khar (West) and Mulund through the monsoon to complete the delayed project.

Past several deadlines, the civic body is pushing to complete its water distribution and improvement project (WDIP) in H/West (Bandra and adjoining areas) and T (Mulund) wards since 2014. According to BMC’s special engineering department, the project is expected to be completed around August 15.

The civic body is yet to build chambers and install pressure valves in water pipes which will ensure uninterrupted water supply through the day. For this, it has dug up portions of major roads in the two suburban areas, the work on which will go on over the next few months. The work is currently in progress at St Martin Road, Hill Road, SV road, Juhu Circle and General Arunkumar Vaidya Marg in the western suburbs and Veena Nagar, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, Bal Rajeshwar road and Navghar road in the eastern suburbs.

Prakash Kadam, deputy municipal commissioner (special engineering), said, “We will try to finish construction of chambers before June 30. The work may inconvenience citizens, but we will do it during the dry spell under supervision. We are also prepared to tackle water-logging in the areas.” Sharad Ughade, assistant municipal commissioner (H/W), said, “The project will benefit a lot of people.”

Under it, the civic body plans to offer 10 services, including quality assurance, leak detection in pipes, GIS mapping for network, among others.