BWSSB will save 15 million litres a month after replacing water pipeline

BENGALURU: With the replacement of nearly 40-year-old water pipelines between Victoria Road and ASC Centre and College on Old Airport Road set for completion on Monday, the city stands to gain an additional 15 million litres of water every month which was earlier lost due to leakages. It took the BBMP nearly two years to give permission to the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to execute this work along a length of 805 metres, which took 25 days for completion.

The BWSSB is now awaiting permission from BBMP so that it can complete replacement of another 1.8-km of pipeline between ASC Centre and Command Hospital.BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief Kemparamaiah said, “The leaks caused by these old pre-stressed concrete pipelines along this stretch have caused us a loss of 3 million litres of water per day (MLD) and replacing the entire 2.6 km stretch with mild steel pipes will help us save all that water. Right now, since one portion has been completed, we are set to save 15 million litres a month.”

The BWSSB is spending `2.96 crore to replace them, he added. “We are laying 60 metres of pipelines, each measuring 450 mm in diameter, per day. Water from the existing old pipeline will be diverted towards the portion of new pipelines to be connected on Monday,” he said.

Over Rs 113 cr water bill

Thanks to the unaccounted-for water project which has helped reduce water losses across the city from 49 per cent to 38 per cent now, BWSSB now consistently earns over `100 crore per month through collection of water bills and sanitary charges. “We created history by collecting revenue of `113.75 crore in December . It is the highest for a month ever since BWSSB was formed,” said Kemparamaiah.