Major pipe burst leaves city thirsty

The pipeline is nearly 15 years old. The road caved in at the beginning of the bridge leading to a major traffic snarl around 10 am. The pipeline carries water from Cantonment Water Works to the Yerawada pumping line. Work was going on till late evening with the PMC saying it would work overtime to ensure that the water supply was restored.

“The pipeline must have burst because of the trapped air in the pipeline,sometimes it also happens because of the water pressure,” said PMC development engineer (water supply) Pramod Nirbhavane. “At least 40 per cent of the city has been affected. We will work through the day and even night,if necessary,to ensure that water supply is restored to the affected areas by Tuesday,” he said.

Around six metres of the pipeline need to be replaced. Nirbhavane said incidents like trapped air pressure leading to pipeline bursts are common but for the first time it has happened on a large scale.

“On Monday,people had to resort to filling water from temples,” said Sameer Nikam from Sangamwadi.

“Even otherwise,we have water shortage here,but as there was no notice on Monday,there was little else people could do,” he said.

Traffic was cordoned off as the work continued the entire day. The bridge connects the airport to Bund Garden and other residential areas like Koregaon Park.

“As the road had caved in,we did not allow traffic. Commuters are using the old Yerwada bridge,that allows traffic to move very slowly. We have been monitoring the re-routing of the traffic the entire day,” said a police officer with the city traffic department.