MUMBAI: Lakhs of residents in parts of the suburbs faced a difficult time over a couple of days due to non-availability of drinking water after a pipeline got damaged at Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road when work on the Metro was on. Even as households ran dry—with not a drop to drink, literally—the municipal authorities and the agency implementing the Metro work passed the buck to one another.
Trouble started on Thursday evening after the pipeline got punctured during piling work on metro line VI, said officials. The piling rig drill got stuck into the pipeline. even as officials tried to divert flow of water into a storm water drain to avoid a soggy mess on the street as it would lead to a traffic jam.
At the time of filing this report on Saturday evening, the BMC claimed it had completed repair work to the damaged pipeline and said normal supply would be restored from Sunday.
A group of people from Jogeshwari spilled onto the streets, protesting against the authorities. They blocked vehicular traffic on Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road briefly on Saturday afternoon.
The damage to the pipeline compelled residents to arrange for tankers to supply water to their homes. The crisis affected not only households, but also commercial establishments. Parts of Bandra, Khar, Santacruz were affected only on the western side while residents of Vile Parle, Andheri, Jogeshwari in the west and east were severely hit due to shortage of water. In Goregaon, only the eastern side was affected. In the central suburbs, parts of the western side of Kurla and Ghatkopar faced severe shortage.
BMC officials claimed that they had arranged water tankers from elsewhere in the city and provided free water to citizen who had called them for help. However, residents had a different story to tell.
Farzana Shaikh, a resident of Daswani Society at Four Bungalows in Andheri (west), said her entire locality had been affected since Thursday. “We called BMC officials but got no help... We tried to arrange water through tankers and even offered to pay extra, but got nor esponse. For two days, we somehow managed with the supply from a ring well in our building... On the third day, we had to purchase mineral water...”
However, demand for mineral water had surged due to paucity of water in the suburbs, said a resident of Andheri (east). “I had sent my employee to a couple of big shops in my locality to buy gallons of mineral water, but they had all run out of mineral water,” said the resident.
Corporator from Bandra Asif Zakaria (Congress) said only a few pockets were supplied water by the BMC. “The rest struggled to get tankers. There was no Plan B in place to deal with the emergency,” he said.
The region’s development agency, MMRDA, which is implementing the metro rail work, said that the BMC to blame. A senior MMRDA official monitoring the situation said that before they started piling work for the Metro VI line, they had requested the BMC to provide marking of underground utilities that snake beneath the road.
“Our engineers had not been informed specifically about this 1,800mm, major utility lying 9 metres beneath the ground,” said an MMRDA official. “So, unfortunately this led to damage to the pipeline.”
BMC officials said their priority was to repair the pipeline at the earliest. “We had provided all details to MMDRA,” said a BMC official. “If there are specific allegations, I will be able to comment only after examining our records.”
Trouble started on Thursday evening after the pipeline got punctured during piling work on metro line VI, said officials. The piling rig drill got stuck into the pipeline. even as officials tried to divert flow of water into a storm water drain to avoid a soggy mess on the street as it would lead to a traffic jam.
At the time of filing this report on Saturday evening, the BMC claimed it had completed repair work to the damaged pipeline and said normal supply would be restored from Sunday.
A group of people from Jogeshwari spilled onto the streets, protesting against the authorities. They blocked vehicular traffic on Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road briefly on Saturday afternoon.
The damage to the pipeline compelled residents to arrange for tankers to supply water to their homes. The crisis affected not only households, but also commercial establishments. Parts of Bandra, Khar, Santacruz were affected only on the western side while residents of Vile Parle, Andheri, Jogeshwari in the west and east were severely hit due to shortage of water. In Goregaon, only the eastern side was affected. In the central suburbs, parts of the western side of Kurla and Ghatkopar faced severe shortage.
BMC officials claimed that they had arranged water tankers from elsewhere in the city and provided free water to citizen who had called them for help. However, residents had a different story to tell.
Farzana Shaikh, a resident of Daswani Society at Four Bungalows in Andheri (west), said her entire locality had been affected since Thursday. “We called BMC officials but got no help... We tried to arrange water through tankers and even offered to pay extra, but got nor esponse. For two days, we somehow managed with the supply from a ring well in our building... On the third day, we had to purchase mineral water...”
However, demand for mineral water had surged due to paucity of water in the suburbs, said a resident of Andheri (east). “I had sent my employee to a couple of big shops in my locality to buy gallons of mineral water, but they had all run out of mineral water,” said the resident.
Corporator from Bandra Asif Zakaria (Congress) said only a few pockets were supplied water by the BMC. “The rest struggled to get tankers. There was no Plan B in place to deal with the emergency,” he said.
The region’s development agency, MMRDA, which is implementing the metro rail work, said that the BMC to blame. A senior MMRDA official monitoring the situation said that before they started piling work for the Metro VI line, they had requested the BMC to provide marking of underground utilities that snake beneath the road.
“Our engineers had not been informed specifically about this 1,800mm, major utility lying 9 metres beneath the ground,” said an MMRDA official. “So, unfortunately this led to damage to the pipeline.”
BMC officials said their priority was to repair the pipeline at the earliest. “We had provided all details to MMDRA,” said a BMC official. “If there are specific allegations, I will be able to comment only after examining our records.”
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