A pipeline on the premises of the Tallah water tank that is part of the network of pipelines that takes potable out of the Tallah tank and into the distribution network of the city burst on Saturday morning.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) was forced to stop water supply to some areas in north Kolkata in the afternoon.
Water supply to Tallah, Cossipore, Belgachhia, Shyambazar, Paikpara and some adjoining areas was stopped on Saturday afternoon.
A senior official of the KMC said that the valve of one of the pipes burst, forcing water to gush out of the pipe with force.
The leaking water led to waterlogging in a portion of the premises of the Tallah water tank.
“The valve burst around 11am. Fortunately, the morning water supply hours were over by then. We had to shut down water supply to fix the valve in the afternoon,” said an official of the KMC.
Water supply was restored in the affected areas by the evening, said the official.
The water pipe whose valve burst is over 50 years old, said the official.
The affected areas receive water thrice a day — for four hours in the morning, for about an hour in the afternoon and for two hours in the evening, said officials.
Panchanantala booster
A booster pumping station along with a reservoir of 15 lakh litres capacity was inaugurated in Dhakuria Panchanantala on Saturday.
The booster pumping station holds out the hope of resolving the water scarcity in the area, which has been a problem for decades, said an official of the KMC.
The portable water that will be stored in the reservoir will come from the Garden Reach water treatment plant.
“People in this area have been suffering from a water crisis for years. There is a slum in Panchanantala where the water crisis was also felt,” said the official.
The booster pumping station cum reservoir at Panchanantala is part of a series of such facilities being built in south Kolkata after the production capacity of the Garden Reach water treatment plant was increased by 25 million gallons a day last year.
The additional water that is being produced will go to the newly built stations with the aim to reduce water scarcity in those pockets.
“The booster pumping station pushes the water stored in the reservoir into the distribution network with an additional thrust. This helps send the water to farthest corners where water would not have reached otherwise,” said the official.
Water often doesn’t reach remote areas of a locality because the pressure decreases significantly before it can reach there through the underground pipelines.