Pumping of drinking water from the treatment plants of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) at Aruvikkara was stopped shortly after 7.30 p.m. on Saturday following a pipe-burst at a point between Ambalamukku and Peroorkada.
KWA engineers said the line that burst was a 400-mm cast iron-line branching off from the main pipeline ferrying water from Aruvikkara to the Observatory hill reservoir.
Normal supply of water is expected to be restored late Sunday morning.
The burst took place soon after water supply to the Peroorkada zone was restored on Saturday after a shutdown to facilitate work on a valve. The Thirumala zone and the low-level zone in the city remained unaffected by Saturday's burst.
Shortly after 11 p.m., KWA engineers started diverting water from the Thirumala reservoir to the Observatory reservoir. The water that jetted out from the burst line flooded nearby houses on the ‘pipeline road.'
The police and the Fire and Rescue Services personnel rushed to the spot, even as the compound wall of a house was demolished to prevent flooding in the area.
The supply of water to both the Peroorkada and the Observatory zones was shut down to allow the KWA personnel to identify which of the three active lines on the pipeline road had burst.
Only by 11 p.m. were the engineers able to know for certain that it was the 400-mm booster line that burst.
V. Chandran, executive engineer, Thiruvananthapuram, KWA, said the shutdown of both zones became inevitable because water from the Observatory zone line was flowing into the line ferrying water to Manvila through an interconnection valve at Peroorkada.
On Saturday, work was also on to rectify a leak on the main pipeline from Aruvikkara to the Observatory reservoir, near the Vellayambalam junction.
