Slow pace of UGD repair work leaves residents without water for six months in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE For the last six months, the Coimbatore Corporation is supplying drinking water through t

For the last six months, the Coimbatore Corporation is supplying drinking water through tankers for residents on Devangapet Street 1 as the contractor it had engaged to repair a stretch of the underground sewer line on the street had damaged those lines.

Initially the Corporation supplied water every day through tankers. But now it supplied only once in three or four days, complained a resident, adding that this was not their only problem, though.

The Corporation dug the road – a main link road between Mettupalayam Road in the west to Dr. Krishnasamy Road in the east – sometime in November 2021 to repair the sewer line as a brick laden lorry got stuck after a portion of the road caved in.

After assessing the damage, the Corporation decided to replace the entire stretch of the sewer line, right from Mettupalayam Road and began work. To date, the Corporation had not completed the work and the pace of progress was very slow, complained Keshaw Kumar Dubey, another resident.

The work had left the residents with no sewer connection, either, as the Corporation removed all house service connection pipes, complained a shopkeeper on the street.

On top of it, the traders on the street were losing business and found it difficult to move goods. They had endured so much difficulty, but what angered them the most was the slow pace of work, a trader said and wanted the Corporation to complete the work at the earliest.

Sources in the Corporation said the civic body hoped to complete the work in the next few weeks. The delay in the past couple of months was escalation in price of materials. Notwithstanding the problem, the Corporation would complete the underground sewer line work first and then provide house service connection. Thereafter, it would restore the water supply lines.