Incessant rain that lashed the district in recent days has hampered the second phase of replacing defective pipelines under the Alappuzha drinking water project at Thakazhi.
The second phase of work that began in the last week of April was scheduled to be completed in 15 days. Officials of the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) say the contractor has so far laid 23 pipes with a total length of 138 metres.
"The second phase of work aims to lay 210 metres of the pipeline. Bad weather has delayed the progress. We will accelerate the work once the weather improves," said an official.
The work is being carried out by digging the Ambalapuzha-Thiruvalla road.
The plan is to lay around 1,200 metres of 900-mm mild steel pipe at Kelamangalam and Thakazhi. In the first phase, 370 metres pipeline had been laid at Kelamangalam.
The Alappuzha drinking water project was executed by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) with Central assistance under the UIDSSMT in 2017. However, since its launch, pipelines under the project had burst 70 times, the majority of them at Thakazhi, 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 road.
