Nagpur: At least five drinking-water pipeline damage cases are reported every day in the rapidly developing Besa-Pipla belt, Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) officials told TOI, underscoring the effect of repeated road digging and infrastructure works on the local water network.The problem affects Besa, Pipla, Beltarodi, Ghogli and Shankarpur, where road, stormwater drain and sewerage works are under way simultaneously. MJP officials said pipeline breaks often disrupt supply for several hours. The issue is not new: in an earlier incident, a pipeline supplying Besa, Beltarodi, Ghogli and Pipla was damaged during stormwater drain work, wasting lakhs of litres of water and affecting supply in several villages.Residents say the rapid pace of development has not been matched by coordination between agencies. Sonu Karmakar of Ghogli said repeated digging for road and drainage works was damaging water lines and disrupting supply. “People’s priority is water. Whenever a pipeline is damaged, the entire area suffers for hours,” he said.Prasanjeet Dutta of Besa said the problem had persisted for years because agencies undertaking road and drain works often failed to account for existing pipelines. He had earlier told TOI that an RCC drain being laid in the middle of the road had damaged a drinking-water pipeline.Residents are also concerned about the way new infrastructure is being laid over existing utilities. Some water pipelines are reportedly being placed below or alongside stormwater drains, and cement roads are then built over them. Any future pipeline failure would therefore require the concrete road to be dug up again.The belt has already faced repeated water crises. Earlier this year, residents of a housing society near Besa-Pipla Road endured a seven-day shortage and had to depend on private tankers. TOI had reported that development proceeded without adequate planning for essential utilities, forcing authorities to retrofit water and other infrastructure into congested areas.NP CO Bharat Nandanwar told TOI that a major reason for the recurring damage is that MJP’s pipelines are at least a decade old and were laid when roads were extremely narrow. “Earlier it was a bunch of villages, and only now it is blossoming as a suburban area, so all the roads are being widened. Therefore, it is natural for these pipelines to obstruct the infrastructure development work. What we can do is shift these pipelines wherever necessary, as we did on the stretch from Besa Sq to Manish Nagar T-point. And in case of any damage to a water pipeline, it is the responsibility of the agency that damaged it to repair it immediately,” he said.Sources said gram panchayats lack clear records of pipeline alignments, leaving the lines vulnerable during excavation, while roadwork agencies often dig without consulting MJP.
