Pune’s water supply was disrupted across several central and suburban areas after three successive electrical and equipment failures affected the city’s pumping and treatment infrastructure over three days, with the Pune Municipal Corporation saying supply was restored on Sunday but remained delayed or low-pressure in some locations.
The disruption followed a scheduled water shutdown on Thursday, a cable failure at the Parvati water treatment plant on Friday and a power interruption at the Khadakwasla pumping station on Saturday. The failures affected water delivery to central neighbourhoods and suburbs, leaving residents to manage delayed and low-pressure supply.
The Parvati plant’s older 350-million-litre-per-day treatment facility had to be shut for about four hours on Friday after a fault developed in an electrical cable. The system was restarted after repairs, according to the report. The following day, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited’s express feeder cable supplying power to the Khadakwasla pumping station was damaged during construction work.
The temporary power arrangement was then affected by a short circuit after a monkey came into contact with an overhead line. Two transformers at the pumping station became non-operational, disrupting pumping operations that supply water to the Warje water treatment plant.
The municipal corporation started generators and kept four of the station’s five pumps operating. This allowed water pumping to continue at about 80 per cent capacity. The civic body also hired two transformers, each rated at 1,200 kVA, from a private supplier. One transformer had been installed and started by Sunday, while work on installing the second was continuing that evening.
The affected areas included central peth neighbourhoods, the railway station area, Kharadi, Wadgaonsheri, Bhandarkar Road, parts of Kothrud, Karvenagar, Shivajinagar and Aundh. Residents in these areas were reported to have received water late or at reduced pressure, with the disruption occurring shortly before Diwali.
Nandkishor Jagtap, superintendent engineer in the Pune Municipal Corporation’s water supply department, said additional pumping hours would be provided to areas affected by the failures. Engineers had also been instructed to monitor the distribution network while supply was being normalised, the report said.
The sequence of failures exposed how dependent the city’s water network is on uninterrupted electricity at treatment plants and pumping stations. In this instance, the municipal corporation’s response relied on generators, reduced-capacity pumping and hired transformers while repairs and replacement work continued.
The civic body’s immediate next step is to complete installation of the remaining transformer and provide additional pumping time to the affected areas. Engineers are expected to continue monitoring the distribution system as normal supply is restored.
