KOCHI: Be it water supply or roads, the lack of coordination between various government departments is making the life of Kochiites a hell. The latest incident is pipe bursts in Vyttila, which disrupted water supply to some of the major residential areas in the city from Thursday morning. The reason for the pipe burst, according to Kerala Water Authority (KWA) officials, is the drilling done as part of the cable laying for BSNL.
"The pipe burst occurred at two places around midnight on Wednesday. The drilling works were being carried out in the Vyttila area as part of the laying of optical fibre cable of BSNL from Southern Naval Command to Nedumbassery. The pipe bursts occurred on the Vyttila road and near Ponnurunni underpass," according to a KWA official.
The official said the pipe bursts occurred in areas which are very close to the pumping house and there is no other way than to stop the pumping to avoid more damage and water loss. The KWA pumps nearly 18 MLD of water through these pipes from its Thammanam pump house.
Three big pumping lines and three water supply pipelines pass through Vyttila and Ponnurunni. After the pipe bursts, the supply to Vyttila, Kadavanthra, Elamkulam, Chilavannoor, Poonithura, Gandhi Square, Petta and Chambakkara was disrupted. According to KWA, it will take nearly 24 hours to rectify the situation.
Following the service disruption and increasing number of complaints, Ernakulam District Collector S Suhas on Thursday morning visited the areas and called an emergency meeting which was attended by officials of the NH wing of Public Works Department (PWD), police, KWA and BSNL.
"At the meeting, the officials concerned promised that the water supply will be restored on Friday morning. After calling a meeting of various stakeholders, it was decided to complete the rectification works on Thursday night itself," said Suhas.