Water Supply Disruption Due to BRT Red Line Construction Damage
- KWSC chief says BRT Red Line workers damaged water main on University Road during digging. Repair work to be completed ‘within 72 hours’.
- Supply will remain suspended for five more days in Clifton, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Jamshed town and old city areas due to the leakage development after repairing a previous rupture. Residents are facing shortages of tap water since two weeks ago following this incident on University Road near Karachi University that caused hardship among commuters stuck in traffic for hours even before they had access again, with efforts made by KWSC CEO Salahuddin Ahmed to restore the supply within three days as per his statement.
- Repair work is underway since Monday (today), targeting completion on Wednesday which faces further delays after additional leaks were found and necessitated more repair works, with only two days of water being supplied for recovery before facing another leakage situation emerged near the affected areas; KWSC CEO had requested Rs35 million from TransKarachi as compensation to fund these repairs.
- The 84-inch main pipe was damaged multiple times by BRT Red Line contractors during construction, despite several meetings held with them regarding avoidance of such incidents which the KWSC CEO mentioned in his letter seeking monetary recovery for repair costs caused due to negligence.
- A further inquiry has been ordered after a leakage surfaced shortly before water flow resumed and another section was damaged; course actions will follow based on this report, as sources clarify the situation where KWSC had previously provided TransKarachi with an entire plan of underground infrastructure along BRT’s University route but still faced recurrent issues during their construction work.
- Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024.