A pipeline burst punched a massive hole in Mahim’s LJ Road yesterday. Hundreds of litres of water were wasted, but the BMC is sure that today’s water supply will not be affected
A pipeline burst punched a massive hole in Mahim’s LJ Road yesterday. Hundreds of litres of water were wasted, but the BMC is sure that today’s water supply will not be affected.
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BMC workers dig up LJ Road in Mahim to get to the source of leakage in the Tansa pipeline. Pic/Shadab Khan
The Tansa (west) pipeline runs under this road and supplies water to the island city.
On Wednesday, water kept flowing onto the road near the Subway restaurant all through the day. When a BEST bus crossed the stretch around 4 pm, the road caved in about half a foot. Water gushed onto the busy road. Civic officials and traffic police were called in.
Traffic was diverted to Cadell Road as an immediate measure and a motor was used to pump the water out into the neighbouring drain. Thereafter, the road was shut to traffic.
Still at work
The BMC’s hydraulics department dug up the road several feet to reach the point of leakage, but it had not found it till the time of going to press. Two earthmovers were deployed and several workers from the department were present.
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“We are yet to reach the pipeline that is leaking. That will happen on Wednesday night. Then, the broken patch will have to be welded together. We still don’t know how big the puncture is. Depending on that, it might take 24 or 48 hours to fix the problem,” said Abhijit Desai, a junior engineer from the department.
Shahbaz Ansari, a juice seller whose shop is on the adjacent footpath, said, “Water had been leaking out from the edges of the road for two to three days. On Wednesday, it started gushing out and the road caved in. The BMC couldn’t identify the leakage all this while.”
Amita Achrekar, who lives across the road, was thankful that no one had been injured.