Water supply to large parts of Behala, Garden Reach and Maheshtala was disrupted after a repaired portion of a pipe breached again early on Tuesday, officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and police officers said.
The leak, near Jinjirabazar on Budge Budge Trunk Road, was so big that some of the shops and homes along the stretch got flooded.
Those whose shops and homes were flooded blocked the road in the afternoon, disrupting traffic to and from the city.
Engineers of the KMC were still working on fixing the leak late on Tuesday.
Senior KMC engineers said the leak developed in a 900mm-diameter pipe, which supplies potable water to large parts of Behala, Garden Reach and Maheshtala.
“Ten to 12 wards in Behala were affected. It is not that they did not get any water, but the pressure was far lower. The volume of water supplied to these places was much less than usual,” an engineer said.
Dulal Das, chairperson of Maheshtala Municipality, said the affected pipe carries potable water to wards 1 to 10 under the civic body.
“All areas under Maheshtala Municipality receive potable water from the KMC. While wards 1 to 10 were badly affected, other wards received some water because there is another pipeline that serves those wards,” said Das.
The pipeline first breached last week and repairs started on Saturday, said a police officer. “The KMC had completed repairs on at least one portion on Monday. But last night, the repaired portion breached again under high pressure of the water flowing through the pipe,” said the police officer.
Water gushed out and flooded the road. It entered stores and homes along the thoroughfare.
“People upset with water flooding their stores and homes blocked Budge Budge Trunk Road for some time in theafternoon,” said a police officer.
“Traffic was affected during the roadblock, but otherwise there were no snarls. Since a large section of Budge Budge Trunk Road, near the Jinjirabazar crossing, has been dug up for repairs, we have diverted traffic through another road,” said a police officer.
The leak was fixed on Tuesday evening. “Normal supply will resume from Wednesday morning,” said a KMC official.