Indian Express 25.05.2010
BMC restores water supply via Malad tunnel
Express News Service Tags : BMC water supply, mumbai Posted: Tue May 25 2010, 00:19 hrs
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) restored the water supply to Malad, Goregaon, Kandivali and Dahisar on Sunday evening. The supply to these areas was affected after an underground tunnel burst at Malad owing to illegal borewell digging.The BMC took 101 days to repair the tunnel and restore the supply to these areas. As many as 20 BMC engineers of its hydraulic engineering department, 12 HCC engineers and 90 employees were delpoyed to repair the tunnel.
“The tunnel was filled up with water by Sunday afternoon. We closed the supply to the older system of water distribution by 3 pm and switched over to the supply through the tunnel at 5 pm,” said deputy municipal commissioner Dinesh Gondaliya. While the supply was isolated in the tunnel by May 8, the repairing work started on May 12. The repair works were completed by May 16. Since February 12, the tunnel had been leaking five million liters a day. For undertaking repair work, the BMC had switched to the old Borivali reservoir network.
Hindustan Construction Company, the firm that built the tunnel in 2004, was appointed by the BMC to carry out the repair works at a cost of Rs.5 crore as it does not have enough expertise in repairingtunnels.
The BMC had isolated the water supply to the 2.8-km long stretch from Liberty Garden to Charkop. Workers went 250-ft deep and 700 metres inside the tunnel towards the exact spot of rupture.
“The dug up parts on the road and winding up procedures will be completed in the next two days,” said Gondaliya.
