Urban News

The absence of a complex underground utility network had often resulted in workers damaging pipelines while digging roads. The city has had 51 pipe ruptures in the last four years, six of them in the last two weeks, resulting in the wastage of millions of litres of water.

The BMC is in the process of preparing a GIS-based digital map for future development projects, marking each surface civic structure from a manhole to a building. But a high price quoted for the mapping of the city’s 40 lakh properties has resulted in the BMC dropping underground mapping.

“If we are to map over and underground amenities as earlier planned, the price will be not less than Rs 240 crore and we have a budget of only Rs 32 crore,” said a civic official. “We will conduct the underground survey of pipelines in later stages.”

Deputy municipal commissioner (water supply) Dineshchandra Gondaliya said although there is an old water pipeline map, it excludes newly developed areas. “Having the utilities mapped is important not just for the BMC but also for other agencies when we give permission for digging roads,” he said.

An area-wise map of underground utilities would have helped the BMC undertake excavation for development projects or carry out repair work without fear of damaging the mains.

Beneath the city’s 1900-km road network are old water lines laid during British rule, along with storm water drains and sewerage. In addition, there are cables of more than 20 outside agencies including cellular services and Mahanagar Gas, and almost all of these are unmapped or unmarked on the existing maps that haven’t been updated for ages. The MMRDA has been often forced to modify road and subway project plans because of utilities underground, leading to huge escalations in cost.

The BMC first proposed digital mapping of the city in 2007 but got only digital base maps from the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which has taken low lying aerial photographs.

Maps from the physical survey of the city will be superimposed on the base map to prepare an integrated holistic map. Every single property of the estimated 40 lakh will be mapped to implement the new capital value system to measure property tax. Officials said the task of physically visiting these properties to calculate the carpet area and details including number of storeys, open space, type (commercial or residential) will be strenuous. It will be even more difficult to conduct this exercise in slum areas, where residents have built two-storey structures and rented or sub-let these individually