Repair of Malad water tunnel may take 20 more days,says BMC

The repair work on the Malad water tunnel,which began on Monday,is expected to take about 20 days to be completed,said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

The repair work on the Malad water tunnel,which began on Monday,is expected to take about 20 days to be completed,said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The tunnel was damaged on February 12 by residents while illegally digging a tube well and has been leaking since then.

The BMC on Monday began plugging the burst water tunnel at Malad. We have initially isolated the Malad tunnel so that dewatering work could begin, said P M Guhe,deputy hydraulic engineer (maintenance).

Weve closed the valves of the tunnel and opened the valves of the Borivali reservoir from where the water is being supplied to areas between Goregaon and Dahisar, he said.

It will take 2-3 days to dewater the tunnel completely. Around 10-12 million litres of water will be pumped out daily using four water pumps.

During the repair work,there will be low water pressure in Goregaon,Malad,Kandivali,Borivali and Dahisar areas.

We are drawing the water from the tunnel into tankers and the water is being supplied to areas where there is less water supply, said P M Guhe.

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Five million litres of water has been wasted daily from the tunnel since its burst.

Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) that had built the tunnel will under take the repair works. The cost of repair work is estimated to be Rs 5 crore.

A team of BMC officials and the HCC staff had visited Germany to adopt specialised techniques to repair the tunnel damage.

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