Khadakwasla pumping back to normal after three days of power faults hit Pune water supply

A series of electrical faults over three days disrupted water supply in Pune. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) resumed regular pumping at the Khadakwasla pumping station at 8 am on Sunday, after one of the two faulty transformers there was replaced. The PMC now intends to run the pumps for extra hours to make up for the water that fell short.

The trouble began on October 29, when the weekly scheduled water shutdown was observed. On October 30, a cable fault hit the Parvati Water Treatment Plant, and its old unit with a capacity of 350 million litres a day remained shut for about four hours. It was restarted after repairs. On October 31, a series of power cuts began at the Khadakwasla pumping station.

That day, an express feeder cable of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), which brings power to the pumping station from Nanded City, broke during construction work. MSEDCL arranged a second supply through the Urban Gram express feeder, but a monkey touching an overhead power line caused a short circuit and that supply was also cut. The short circuit was repaired, but a later inspection found that two transformers at the pumping station had failed.

Many residents received water late and at low pressure. Complaints came from the Peth areas, the railway station area, Kharadi, Wadgaon Sheri, Bhandarkar Road, parts of Kothrud, Karve Nagar, Shivajinagar and Aundh, among other places.

To keep the pumps running, the PMC installed diesel generator sets. With their help, four of the five pumps that send raw water to the Warje Water Treatment Plant kept working, meaning about 80 per cent of pumping capacity continued. Since the faulty transformers could not be repaired quickly, Vishwaraj Environment Limited, the agency that operates and maintains the pumping station, hired two 1,200 KVA transformers from a private supplier on October 31.

One of them was installed and commissioned, restoring regular power supply and pumping on Sunday morning. The second transformer was also to be installed on Sunday. Until then, pumping will run on generators.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Pavneet Kaur said all major power faults had been fixed and normal pumping had begun. She said: "To make up for the accumulated shortfall, especially in the affected distribution areas, additional hours of pumping will be given as far as operations allow."

Nand Kishore Jagtap, chief superintending engineer of the PMC water supply department, also said the major faults had been dealt with. According to him, the PMC will extend pumping hours as far as is technically possible, so that the shortfall is made up and pressure returns to normal in the affected areas.

With Diwali near, the PMC has asked its engineers to keep a close watch on the distribution network and to deal with complaints from the affected areas first. The corporation said the additional pumping hours would be decided keeping in view technical and operational limits.