Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation starts conditional assessment of 200 kms of its drainage pipelines

Out of the total 3,300 km of drainage pipeline spread across the city, nearly 600 km is the main trunk lines.

Further, out of this 600 km, nearly 300 km has been laid down in the last ten years.

“These include areas of North West zone and east zone along the Sardar Patel Ring Road which is not older than three years. This leaves around 200 km of oldest main trunk lines that are prone to damage and thus cave-ins,” AMC city engineer Harpalsinh Zala told The Indian Express.

Following heavy rainfall on July 10, Ahmedabad city had so far reported nearly 45 cave-ins across seven zones, majority during last ten days alone, of which around six are the major ones on the main trunk lines of waste water pipelines. As Thursday, repair work is in progress on 30 cave-ins while completed on 15.

The latest major cave-in was reported in the city on July 16 opposite Sahajanand School along the Metro elevated corridor in Vastral with a depth of 40 feet.

This was recorded on camera by local residents and doing the rounds on social media. Prior to that, a major cave-in was reported in Shahibaug area where an entire car got sunk.

All cave-ins have been reported on the drainage pipelines. The highest number of these are reported from the West zone with six cave-ins followed by five each in the South, Central and North West zone, three in the East zone, two each in South West and North zone and two in East zone.

As per sources, the conditional assessment for which tendering process is in final stages, will cover sewage lines under major roads including Ashram Road, 132 feet Ring Road, LD College of Engineering to Nehru Nagar to Dharnidhar Derasar, Kargil Petrol station to Sarkhej on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway which is said to laid down in 1995.

Other areas will include Naroda Patiya to Sarangpur, Naroda Patiya to BRT route till Virat Nagar, Memco till Bapunagar and Behrampura till Pirana.

AMC officials have been blaming the heavy downpour of nearly 10 inch rainfall between July 10 and 11 recorded in the city to have damaged storm water and drainage pipelines at several places with over 410 mm rainfall recorded in July in Ahmedabad city.