After a gap of more than two months, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) restarted the work to replace defective pipelines under the Alappuzha drinking water project at Thakazhi on Wednesday.
Officials said that they hoped to complete the work between Valiyapalam and Railway Cross in a month. "The work which commenced on Wednesday morning immediately hit a snag, but the contractor is capable of managing it. A timetable has been prepared and we hope to complete the entire work in a timebound manner," said an official of the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT).
The Alappuzha drinking water project was executed by the KWA with Central assistance under the UIDSSMT in 2017. However, since its launch, pipelines under the project had burst 72 times, majority of them at Thakazhi and Kelamangalam, disrupting water supply to Alappuzha municipality and eight nearby grama panchayats, along with damaging the Ambalappuzha-Thiruvalla road.
After more than two years of dilly-dallying, the UIDSSMT launched the pipe-relaying work at Kelamangalam and Thakazhi in February this year. The plan is to lay around 1,200 metres of 900-mm mild steel pipe. The work is carried out by the same contractor who laid the original pipeline. The laying of 370 m of pipeline between Kelamangalam and Valiyapalam was completed a few months ago. The work then came to a halt in May after the contractor left after laying around 140 m of pipeline in the second phase between Valiayapalam and Railway Cross.
