Mind your tap: Mumbai to get 50% less water on Thursday

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced 50% water cut across the city till Thursday midnight. The cut has been declared in view of repair of its Tansa main pipeline that burst at three different spots in Thane early on Wednesday.

The first incident of bursting occurred around 1.30am on Wednesday at BMC’s Agra Road Valve Complex in Bhiwandi, followed by the other two at Chinchwali and Kalyan-Bhiwandi bridge.

A senior official from the hydraulic engineering department said, “Our labourers are doing the repairs on a war footing. We hope to be able to fix the problem by Thursday evening. We have isolated the faulty stretches on the pipelines.”

The city receives 3,400 million litres daily (MLD) from six of its reservoirs including Tansa. From Tansa alone, the corporation draws 450-500 MLD. “But because the leaking stretches of the pipeline had to be isolated, the water in them at the time of bursting has gone waste. Hence, we will need to refill the daily quantity of water in the pipeline once the repairs are done. That’s why the cut has been increased to 50% (from 15%),” the official added.

On Wednesday morning, the corporation had declared a 15% cut. It was increased to 50% in the afternoon on realising the scope of repairs required.

The official said it appears the pipelines burst because they are old.

“As we have four parallel pipelines to bring water to Bhandup water complex (where water is treated before being supplied to city), we will be able to ensure 50% supply properly from the remaining four dams,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the BMC has postponed its earlier announced 10% cut on the eastern sides of Khar and Bandra on June 27. The cut was to be executed for improvement of the distribution system as part of the Maroshi-Ruparel Tunnel project.

“Even though the cut has been postponed, we appeal to the citizens to use water judiciously until we fix the Tansa pipeline problem,” the official said.