Ghaziabad: Excavation work for a drainage network overhaul in Indirapuram has damaged underground utilities, including the Ganga water pipeline, gas lines and optical fibre cables, residents said. Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation’s ongoing refurbishment of its 135-km drainage network under the CM-GRID project has led to localised internet outages and water supply disruptions across several societies.Residents have blamed the civic body for continuing excavations for months without assessing the damage caused. A resident of Gaur Green City, Nirmalendu Mishra, said, “Water supply in our society was disrupted the other day. When we asked our maintenance staff, they said the pipeline was damaged due to excavations.” He alleged that the civic body has been carrying out the diggings without considering the other underground utilities. “The sewage and water lines run parallel to each other underground. I am afraid if they are damaged at the same time, it can lead to water contamination,” he said.An IT professional and ATS Advantage resident, Bishal Kumar, had to rush to his colleague’s house in Noida on a weekday just to finish his work for the day. “I usually work from home and I become really anxious when the dot on the router turns red during my office hours. That day when the internet connection failed and my service provider was not able to restore it, I had to go to my colleague’s place,” he said. He was later told that the internet optical fibre was damaged for 100 m in the area, which led to the outage.In many cases, the electric supply has also been affected. Media professional Asha Khosa, a resident of Neeti Khand 3, said, “The drain work has been going on for months right outside my house.Wastewater keeps flowing back into our houses now and then but we are also experiencing power outages. The excavators used to dig up the road have damaged the underground power cables,” she said, adding that the foundation of her apartment’s boundary wall seems to have been damaged and can give way at any time.A 2024 state directive required agencies to use the ‘Call Before U Dig’ app to coordinate excavations and minimise damage to underground utilities, but compliance has been lacking.A GMC official said, “In case of IGL pipelines, we know the coordinates and also where the pipeline runs. The company has set up helpline numbers with a notice that, in case of excavations, they should be contacted, which we do. As for water pipeline, we know from where pipeline goes but in case of optical fibres it becomes difficult to pinpoint the network so it gets damaged.”The official said the township was around 30 years old, but while the roads and drains were being reconstructed, special underground provisions had been made by creating dedicated ducts for wires and cable networks to minimise damage. However, he added that since the infrastructure was three decades old, damage to underground utilities could still occur despite their best efforts.
