The second phase of replacing defective pipelines under the Alappuzha drinking water project has begun.
Officials of the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) said on Saturday that around 350 metres of pipeline would be laid at Thakazhi. "We hope to complete the second phase of pipe-laying work in 15 days. The ongoing work will not affect the pumping and water supply. In the next phase, some 450 metres will be laid. We hope to complete the entire work before the onset of monsoon," said a UIDSSMT official.
The work is being carried out by digging the Ambalapuzha-Thiruvalla road. The plan is to lay around 1,200 metres of 900-mm mild steel pipe at Kelamangalam and Thakazhi. In the first phase, 370 metres of pipeline had been laid at Kelamangalam.
The Alappuzha drinking water project was executed by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) with Central assistance under the UIDSSMT in 2017. However, since its launch, pipelines under the project had burst 70 times, majority of them at Thakazhi, in the past five years, disrupting water supply to residents in Alappuzha municipality and eight nearby grama panchayats, and damaging the Ambalapuzha-Thiruvalla road.
