Hyderabad: From later this month to May, roads in 12 merged municipalities, including Kukatpally, Kapra, Uppal, LB Nagar, Serilingampally, and Quthbullapur, will be dug up to lay drinking water pipelines. The Water Board has sought the GHMC’s permission for digging 2,700 km of road in these areas. The Water Board will spend Rs 2,000 crore on the project, aided by HUDCO.
Malkajgiri is not on the list because the World Bank-aided project is ongoing there. Water Board managing director M. Dana Kishore said, “The pipeline network in these municipalities was laid by the gram panchayats. These areas had hardly any storage tanks and a scattered population then. After the merger with the GHMC, the population has exploded.” He said that the existing pipelines were narrow, at 50-100 mm. This was affecting the distribution of water. Though there is no scarcity, Water Board supplies water once in 5-10 days.
Since the pipelines are narrow, only two lanes are supplied at a time and it takes 10 days for a lane to receive water the next time round. After the new, wider pipelines are laid, water will be supplied every alternate day, he said. He said the new ductile iron pipelines would prevent leakages and there were fewer chances of a pipeline burst. Contractors have been told to complete the work before summer next year. Work will begin after a joint inspection by the traffic department, and GHMC and Water Board engineers. The construction of reservoirs is on.
Mr Subhash Singh, chief engineer (maintenance), GHMC’s engineering wing, which is responsible for the quality of roads, said roads would be dug to lay 150-200 diameter pipelines and re-laid by contractors appointed by the Water Board. In areas where larger pipelines are laid, the GHMC will re-lay the road. Though the municipality and traffic police officials have surveyed the areas to be dug in order to minimise traffic problems, “residents living in these areas should be ready for traffic issues. The Water Board is already running out of time, they need to start work immediately to meet the May deadline,” Mr Kishore said.
The officer said that digging will not be carried out simultaneously everywhere. Instead, roads in municipalities not inter-connected to each other like Alwal and Patancheru will be dug simultaneously so that there is less inconvenience to the public. “As the pipeline work is completed, the road will be laid,” he added.
