With all-round water shortage in the district, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has hastened work on the pipelines in the vicinity of the Kundannoor junction that are expected to restore supply to Maradu and West Kochi.
The pipelines, lying in the area around the Kundannoor junction, were damaged in 2018 when the flyover was being built, cutting off supply to divisions one and two of the Maradu municipality, according to KWA officials. To fix the supply shortage then, water was temporarily diverted to these two divisions from a nearby pipeline stretching from the pump house at Maradu to Karuvelipady, reducing the supply to West Kochi. With the pipelines now being fixed, the supply to West Kochi will no longer be reduced and the Maradu municipality area will have direct supply from the pump house. Around 95% of the work is complete and the finishing work will be done on Thursday, officials said. Trenching was complicated by the dense network of KSEB, natural gas and phone lines underground.
The work, which should have been done in January after the flyover was ready, was delayed due to the permissions required from the Public Works Department (PWD). Permissions were fast-tracked after a meeting with the District Collector in February, and work began last Saturday on stretches on both sides of the flyover to lay a 200 mm ductile iron pipe that would carry water to the Maradu municipality area. The 200 mm pipe has been connected to a 600 mm main pipe carrying water from the Maradu pump house.
