PUNE: Thousands of litres of water was wasted after the main water pipeline bursted while the road widening work on Katraj-Kondhwa road was going on at around 9 am on Saturday. 

The Water Supply Department blamed lackadaisical attitude of the road contractor for the water wastage and has decided to slap a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

On Saturday morning, a JCB ruptured the main water pipeline valve and the water started flooding the road. The incident took place when the workers were carrying out digging work near  Rajas society. Due to this, the traffic on both sides of Katraj and Kondhwa was stuck for more than 90 minutes. Apart from this, thousands of litre of water was also wasted.   

While speaking to Sakal Times, the PMC Superintendent of Water Supply Department, Pravin Gedam, said, “The contractor should have taken due precautions. Due to his negligence, the main water pipeline was damaged. Now, we have decided to charge an amount of Rs 5 lakh as fine to the contractor for his lethargic work and damage.”

PMC Additional City Engineer of road department Aniruddha Pawaskar said, “If water supply department sends a letter to us, we will collect fine from the contractor. Besides, we have given instruction to all road contractors to work carefully.” 

Kondhwa-Katraj road links Satara Road to Solapur Road. It is a 3.4 km road stretch, which starts from Rajas Society and ends at Pisoli village. The heavy traffic moves out of the city via this route from Westerly bypass to Solapur road. However, the road is too narrow (15 metres to 20 metres in width) and there is always traffic chaos on this stretch from Kondhwa to Katraj junction through Khadi machine chowk. Hence, the corporation has taken road widening work at a cost of around Rs 150 crore.