The work to replace defective pipelines under the Alappuzha drinking water project is moving at a snail's pace.
The plan is to lay around 1,200 metres of 900-mm mild steel pipe at Thakazhi and Kelamangalam. Though it was announced that the work would be completed before Onam, only around 750 metres of pipeline has been laid so far. Sources said that it would take another 30-40 days to complete the entire work.
The Alappuzha drinking water project was executed by the Kerala Water Authority with Central assistance under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) in 2017. However, since its launch, pipelines under the project had burst 73 times, the majority of them at Thakazhi and Kelamangalam, in the past five years, disrupting the water supply to residents in Alappuzha municipality and eight nearby grama panchayats, along with damaging the Ambalapuzha-Thiruvalla State Highway.
Though the UIDSSMT launched the work to replace defective pipelines at Kelamangalam and Thakazhi in February this year, it came to a grinding halt in May after the contractor left. The work was restarted in August but heavy downpours hampered the progress.
