A five-hour Thane water supply cut will affect Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar, Dombivli industrial areas, Taloja industrial areas and nearby gram panchayats on Tuesday, 29 September, after waste from Ganesh idol immersion reduced the water intake capacity of pumps at the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation’s Barvi water purification plant in Jambhul, Ambarnath.
The MIDC will shut the Barvi water purification plant from 10 am to 3 pm to clean all the water intake pumps and carry out urgent maintenance and repair work. During this period, the plant’s water supply will remain completely suspended for the areas connected to the system, according to the Jambhul water purification centre administration.
The disruption follows the recent Ganesh festival immersion, after which a substantial quantity of waste and floating material accumulated in the Ulhas riverbed. The material clogged the intake pumps, causing a significant reduction in their ability to draw water, the report said.
The affected supply network includes the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation, the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, the Dombivli industrial area and the Taloja industrial area. Other gram panchayats in the surrounding region will also face an interruption during the declared shutdown period. The supply disruption is expected to affect both domestic consumers and industrial users dependent on the MIDC network.
The MIDC has said that water supply will resume after the maintenance work is completed at 3 pm. However, water pressure may remain low for some time after pumping operations restart. This means that restoration of the service will not necessarily result in an immediate return to normal flow across all affected locations.
S. V. Raut, executive engineer of the MIDC’s Dombivli division, has asked industrial and domestic consumers to store sufficient water before the five-hour shutdown begins. The advisory is intended to help households, commercial establishments and factories manage essential requirements during the interruption and the period of reduced pressure that may follow.
The late timing of the public notice has also raised concern among residents. The administration issued the information late on Monday evening, leaving consumers with limited time to make arrangements for the scheduled shutdown on Tuesday. Residents quoted in the report said that an earlier notice would have allowed them to plan their water storage more effectively.
The incident highlights the operational vulnerability of river-based urban water systems during periods when floating waste enters intake infrastructure. In this case, the immediate response is a planned pump-cleaning and repair shutdown rather than an unannounced failure. The MIDC’s stated next step is to complete the maintenance by 3 pm on Tuesday and progressively restore supply to the affected urban and industrial areas.
