KOLKATA: It will be a busy Saturday for the water supply department of Kolkata Municipal Corporation ( KMC ) as it takes up the daunting task of going 40ft below the surface to repair a pipe leak in north Kolkata. Around the same time, in central Kolkata, another team will handle another delicate assignment of digging out a Raj-era pipe at Wellington Square without breaching other utility lines running close to it.KMC has formed a 50-member team to repair the 60-inch pipe, which supplies filtered water to large areas of north and central Kolkata. The pipe that originates at Tallah water reservoir runs below the Cossipore rail tracks and parallel to a brick sewer line till it connects Auckland water booster pumping station in central Kolkata. So apart from catering to large areas of north and central Kolkata, the pipe also plays a vital role in supplying potable water to several south Kolkata localities, including Lansdowne, Bhowanipore, Rashbehari Avenue, Park Circus , Ballygunge and Gariahat Road.A section of KMC water supply department officials on Friday made a survey of the area (Nilmoni Mitra Road near RG Kar Hospital) before planning the repair work. “This is not an ordinary repair work. The 60-inch connector is a major pipe where the pressure of water — even after switching off Palta-Tallah water lines — may cause accidents if the workers try to do anything in haste,” said a KMC official.According to plans, the KMC team of engineers will make a final survey of the pipe after closing the water treatment plant at Palta, which produces 40 million gallon water everyday. Then a team of workers will be engaged in ‘de-watering’ the main pipe. “We will take up the de-watering process from five pressure points. This process will take at least two to three hours. Once this process is over, we will go to the next step,” said the civic official.The next course of action, according to a KMC water supply department official, will be to press into service five heavy-duty pumps to suck the remaining water from the pipe. “Only then will we be able to enter the pipeline,” said a KMC official. A group of KMC workers will then go 40ft down a manhole specially created for the KMC team and start repairing the spot. We need to exercise extreme caution during the repair process. All we need to do is a precision wielding job. Since the 60-inch pipe is built of mild steel, wielding is the best method to repair the leaks,” said a KMC water supply department official.The second job — removal of a defunct century-old pipe — will start simultaneously at 9.30am at Wellington Square. A separate team of KMC engineers and workers will be present at this site to wind up the job by 3pm. The KMC team needs to remove the defunct pipe to facilitate construction of a ventilation shaft and an emergency exit gate for East-West Metro.

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