Gurugram civic body fixes water pipeline after delay of 24 hours

A master pipeline of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) at Sector 51 that started leaking on Monday was finally repaired after about 24 hours on Tuesday morning.

The resultant wastage of water and the late response from GMDA officials to attend to complaints and stop the water leakage annoyed the local residents, who clicked pictures, shot videos and began sending those to the GMDA.

The residents complained that the GMDA on Saturday advised residents to use water judiciously due to a shortage of untreated canal water, but it failed to stop the wastage of treated water due to leaking pipes.

It took the GMDA engineers at least four hours to stop the leakage on Tuesday by wielding the water pipeline as a temporary measure, a GMDA official on duty said, adding that a tender is likely to be floated by Friday to replace the entire water pipeline in front of Gurugram University.

The official said that the leakage, which keeps frequently happening at this location, happened at an L-shaped joint due to heavy water pressure in the pipeline. “To fix this problem permanently, we will have to replace a 200 to 250-metre-long pipeline, which will cost us ₹5 to 7 lakh. We will try to get it done by the end of the month,” said the GMDA official.

According to local residents, the pipeline started leaking from Monday, around 6am onwards. “The pipeline continued to leak throughout the day. People clicked pictures and began tagging administration and officials of the GMDA on Twitter and Facebook in order to draw their attention,” said DC Yadav, Mayfield Garden resident.

A GMDA official on duty said, “We visited the spot on Monday evening soon after we got information about the leakage. There was already waterlogging in the area. As such, it was not possible to locate the leakage, making digging difficult. It was a minor leakage and we decided to attend to it in the morning. We never respond late. ”

Earlier, the pipeline had developed leakage at the same place on June 29, prompting the authority to repair it temporarily.

“The pipeline last leaked continuously for 48 hours (Jun 29-30), prompting us to make videos and send those to top officials of the GMDA. The authority finally woke up and sent a team of engineers following our complaints. In every summer, master water pipeline leaks at this spot. The authority is yet to fix the problem permanently,” said Satpal Thakran, a resident of Sector 51.

The GMDA supplies roughly 480-490 million litre daily(MLD) of treated water to city residents from its two plants at Basai and Chandu Budhera.

Lalit Arora, GMDA chief engineer, said, “We will hire a contractor to replace the old and outdated water pipeline at Sector 51 in a day or two to fix the leakage problem permanently. We floated a tender in April for this, as the problem of leakage at this spot is an old issue, and we wanted to fix it at the earliest. But we did not receive any application. We again floated tender in May but did not receive any application from any contractor. We will invite tender for the third time and if we do not get a response, we will find some other way.”

First Published: Jul 17, 2019 05:21 IST