Diggers stumbled upon the pipeline while working on Metro rail project in Andheri
Diggers stumbled upon the pipeline while working on Metro rail project in Andheri
The tall screeching drillers were tearing apart the road at the busy Four Bungalows area of Andheri while on the
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work in progress: The Mumbai Metro One, which is being constructed by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, found the rusted pipeline at Manish Nagar, Andheri. FILE PIC |
metro rail project on Tuesday night when they hit metal 40 feet below and fell eerily silent.
The clank was a result of sewer pipes of the kind one didn't expect to find there lying unnoticed beneath the comparatively young suburb since perhaps the 1940s.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) maps had not accounted for them. Even the BMC, the city's diggers-in-chief, is not sure when it had laid these lines.
"We are surprised to find this old sewer line so deep, especially since Andheri started developing only in the late 1960s," said a junior MMRDA engineer working at the site.
And since the Versova pumping station runs parallel to the place where this sewer pipe was found, D Mohole, former chief engineer, sewage operations, BMC, said, "The civic body may have laid this main sewer pipe as part of its long-term plan in the 1950s. The pipes always go deeper near a pumping station."
But city historians believe this sewer line was laid much before Independence. "The MMRDA shouldn't underestimate the good the British did for Mumbai," said historian Sharada Dwivedi.
"These areas were being developed in late 1930s, so no one should be surprised if an old sewer has been discovered here."
In the 1930s, Andheri, Versova, Bandra and Kurla were called suburbs after the Bombay government-appointed development director sanctioned construction of 1,000 houses in these areas.
The Mumbai Metro One, which is being constructed by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, found the rusted pipeline at Manish Nagar.
"Our utility mapping device didn't detect it, as it lay very deep. We will restore the damaged network in 4-5 days," said a Reliance Infrastructure Ltd spokesperson.
"Our engineers are at the site and I can comment only after getting a report," said Vijayalaxmi, additional chief, Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority, a wing of the MMRDA, which looks after Mumbai's transport projects.
Peddar Road u00a0sewer updateThe entire dug-up stretch on Peddar Road has been levelled, putting at rest the dust and controversy raised over the replacement of a 100-year-old sewer line on the quarter-km stretch.
The levelling work got over on Wednesday. The BMC said it would resume work in May after the elections.u00a0
