Original water supply network will be restored after repair of hill and road
Mumbai: Water supply was restored to the areas surrounding Napean Sea Road and Malabar Hill in the early hours of August 10 after four consecutive of disconnection of water supply. Water supply was restored at 4 am following marathon laying of new water pipelines after the old water pipelines were damaged due to a landslide at Malabar Hill late on August 5. However, the assistant municipal commissioner (D-ward) Prashant Gaikwad told thenews21.com that this was a temporary water supply arrangement till the old water supply network could be restored after repairing the hillock, excepted to take more than three months.
The traffic on the N.S. Patkar Road too continues to be stalled. “We plan to keep the road operational atleast for one-way traffic in a couple of days,” said Gaikwad. He said that as of now they were awaiting the geological study to be conducted by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology. Once that is over, then a call would be taken on restoring the roads and the original water supply network.
Incidentally, the Development Plan- 2034 has mentioned landslides and floods as the two disasters facing Mumbai city. However, the landslide prone areas were identified as the hills in places like Ghatkopar and Bhandup and had recommended shifting and rehabilitation of the slum dwellers on the hillocks there.
There are 13 hills in Mumbai, namely Malabar Hill, Cumballa Hill, Worli Hill, Mazgaon Hill, Golanji Hill in the Island city, Chunabhatti Hill, Golibar Hill, Powai Hill, Bhandup / Mulund Hill on the Eastern suburbs and Pali Hill, Gilbert Hill, Mahakali / Vyaravali Hill, Jogeshwari/Goregaon Hill on the Western suburbs. While the Gilbert Hill at Andheri is made up of hexagonal basaltic columns, the Worli Hills are frog beds- intra- trappean beds of great scientific value.
