13-hour repair work restores Narmada water line:70 tank areas affected; normal supply resumes from today

A major water crisis gripped several parts of Indore on Friday after a 1,700-mm pipeline burst near Mhow disrupted the city’s water supply. Repair work continued for nearly 13 hours and was completed late at night. Water reached the city only after 5 am on Friday, leading to shortages in morning supply zones. Officials said normal water supply is expected to resume on Saturday. Due to the disruption, 26 overhead tanks could only be partially filled, resulting in low-pressure and short-duration water supply in several areas. Water could not be supplied at all to 44 tank zones, causing significant inconvenience to residents. Areas affected included Scheme 59, Bilawali, Bhanwarkuan, Khatiwala Tank, Bengali Chouraha, Musakhedi, Mahalaxmi Nagar, Sukhliya, Mahavir Nagar and Loha Mandi. Residents in Bijalpur, Khajrana, Hawa Bangla, Vidur Nagar, Reti Mandi, Silicon City and Sarvasuvidha Nagar also reported extremely low water pressure. As soon as the pipeline burst was detected, authorities shut down pumps across all three phases and emptied the entire pipeline before beginning repairs. Following the completion of repair work, pumps were restarted late at night. The disruption affected water distribution from Thursday evening through Friday, leaving many parts of the city facing water shortages for nearly two days. Heavy rain on Friday morning also led to a power outage, further complicating supply. In some areas, water continued to flow despite the outage, but at very low pressure due to insufficiently filled tanks. Civic officials said complaints regarding low-pressure water supply continue to be received from several localities. The municipal corporation has also intensified action against the illegal use of motors to draw water, confiscating 497 motors so far. Meanwhile, the Indore Municipal Corporation has imposed a penalty of ₹5 lakh on Airtel after the Narmada pipeline was reportedly damaged during cable-laying work. The telecom company had been granted conditional permission to lay cables in Zone-13. Municipal officials said the damage led to significant water wastage. Taking serious note of the incident, Municipal Commissioner Kshitij Singhal issued a show-cause notice to the company.