Supply of drinking water in certain parts of the city that was affected following a pipe burst was restored by Sunday noon. Drinking water supply was disrupted at Peroorkada, Jawahar Nagar and Sasthamangalam after a 400 mm primo pipe burst near Pippenmoodu on Saturday morning.
An official with the Kerala Water Authority said there was some delay in restoring the line due to difficulty in getting a contractor to do the repair works. The contractors who were approached refused to be part of the work as the water utility has to pay them for earlier works, the official said. “Finally when we managed to get a contractor to plug the leak, the problem of shutting down a valve cropped up. The valve has to be shut to drain the water before starting the works. It took us several hours to close the valve. At last, we could complete the works by Saturday night and immediately after that we charged the line. Supply was restored by Sunday noon,” he said
The pipeline, which was laid in 1970s, has outlived its life span and needs to be replaced. Two years ago, the KWA had initiated the process to replace the 4 km pipeline covering Peroorkada-Pippenmoodu-Sasthamangalam-Kowdiar-Peroorkada after government gave its approval. However, there were no takers for the Rs. 2 crore pipe replacement project.
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The non-participation of contractors in the tendering process, he said, was owing to practical difficulties that might crop up during the replacement work. The existing primo pipe, which will be live till the replacement process was completed, cannot be disturbed and this needs meticulous planning by the contractor who takes the work. With new revised rates in place, the KWA had re-initiated a tendering for Peroorkada-Sasthamangalam stretch along with works to replace primo pipes on Muttada-Kesavadasapuram and Ambalamukku-Ulloor stretches, the official added.