Come 2018, two wards will have no more 'dry days'

If all goes according to plan, two administrative wards — T (Mulund Colony, Sarvodaya Nagar, Nanapada and Gavanpada) and H/West (Bandra (West), Khar) — of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will receive uninterrupted water supply by March 2018. The BMC's Hydraulic Department hopes to complete all necessary changes in the network and installation of pressure valves in the main pipeline soon.

According to department officials, they have been working on a war-footing to complete the project by December 2017. "We plan to complete all works like changing the network, laying the additional pipeline if required and installing pressure valves by the end of the year," said a civic official. He added that if all goes as planned, we can begin supplying water by December 2017. However, the March 2018 deadline will be met without any delay.

Presently, residents in most parts of the city receive water only for a few hours a day. However, parts of Ghatkopar and Mulund get round-the-clock water supply, accounting for merely 8 to 10 per cent of the total population.

If the pilot project is implemented successfully in these two wards, the civic body plans to ensure round-the-clock water supply to all other wards. Since the project has already been delayed by almost three years, residents are not sure if they will receive uninterrupted water supply anytime soon.

However, an official said that they need to make changes in the network. "We will have to lay a pipeline in a few areas. We also need to make corrections in the existing network in a few places," said the official, adding that some of the technical work like installing pressure regulatory valves in the main pipeline is taking time, thereby causing a delay.

According to BMC officials, consumers will not be required to pay an additional charge to get round-the-clock water supply. "Consumers will not be required to change their water metres too," added the official.