Drinking water supply to West Kochi regions, which was disrupted after a major pipe burst near Atlantis on Friday evening, is expected to be back to normal from the early hours of Sunday.
According to Kerala Water Authority officials, a team of workers and engineers were working at the site where the 700-mm concrete pipe burst, apparently due to high water pressure. The authorities were yet to identify the proper cause of the pipe burst but believed that it might have been due to the high pressure and the age of the pipe.
The work had made quick progress till Saturday evening in the absence of rain, and the KWA officials were expecting to complete the process and resume supply through the arterial pipeline from midnight of Saturday.
“Works were on to fix the glitch from Saturday morning onwards and the pumping of water is scheduled to begin by Saturday midnight,” said Jessy Jose, executive engineer, KWA. The repair work involves cutting the damaged portion and removing it, and inserting a section and joining it to the pipeline.
Initially, the water supply will be under low pressure and it is expected to be normalised a couple of hours later.
Water supply to Fort Kochi, Mattancherry, Thoppumpady regions remains disrupted since the pipe burst on Friday evening, which also threw traffic out of gear along the Thevara-Ernakulam route. While the damage was first reported about 6.30 p.m. on Friday, repair work could begin only after 9 p.m. as the excavator brought to dig up the earth could not reach the spot due to traffic congestion.
