KOLKATA: A scheduled shutdown of water supply to north and central Kolkata on Saturday has suddenly turned into a race against time for KMC with two breaches appearing in major supply lines in the belt and the civic body launching a coordinated effort to carry out these repairs on that very day.While the shutdown had initially been planned to remove a Raj-era pipeline at Raja Subodh Mullick Square so that a ventilation shaft-cum-emergency exit for the East-West Metro line can be constructed, KMC water department officials are now trying to capitalize on the shutdown to carry out the twin repairs in supply pipelines at Nilmoni Mitra Road off Cossipore railway tracks and Chittaranjan Avenue near Ram Mandir.The two pipelines that supply filtered water are lifeline to large areas of north and central Kolkata and need to be repaired at the earliest. The civic authorities have formed a crack team for the repair and removal of major water pipes as civic engineers and workers try to coordinate the activity in such a manner that everything is completed in less than 24 hours and supply restored on Sunday. Both the Palta water treatment plant and Tallah water reservoir will be shut after the morning supply on Saturday and resume only on Sunday morning.“All supply lines in north and central Kolkata will go dry at 9.30am on Saturday. The supply will resume at 6.30am on Sunday,” an official said.The job at Cossipore is a huge challenge given that a section of the 60-inch diameter pipe runs directly below the railway tracks. The pipeline is 30ft below the surface. “We won’t be able to get anywhere near the breached part of the major pipeline located below the railway tracks. We have planned to go down 30 feet to get to a brick sewer line which runs parallel to the water supply line. We will then start repairing this pipe after water supply from Tallah is stopped. It is a precision job and needs to be completed on time,” said a KMC water supply department official.Similarly, reaching the 24-inch pipeline 20-feet below Chittaranjan Avenue is no less a challenge as a sand bed created at the time of north-south Metro construction is proving a hurdle. “We have tried to reach the pipeline that got breached a couple of days ago but failed. Every time we think we have almost reached there, the sand slips through and covers the section. Progress is, therefore, slow. We have now used a wooden peg to plug the breach. But the section needs to be properly repaired with a mild steel cap,” the official said.Removal of a defunct 35-inch water pipe at Raja Subodh Mullick Square will be equally tough as KMC engineers will need to exercise extreme caution and ensure its removal does not breach other major water pipelines that run parallelly underground.

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