Nagpur: In a city already struggling with erratic water supply, yet another crisis has been unleashed — this time, not by nature but by human negligence. Over the past week, reckless digging and drilling by third-party contractors have wreaked havoc on Nagpur’s fragile water infrastructure, bursting seven major pipelines and cutting off drinking water to more than 33,000 residents.
The repeated damage — all within a span of just five days — has left entire neighbourhoods in the dark, or rather, dry. And now, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has had enough.
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Under instructions from Municipal Commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari, the civic body has begun hitting back hard, registering FIRs against multiple contractors. “At least three FIRs have been filed so far — two at Nandanvan police station and one at Lakadganj — for damaging our water supply lines,” confirmed Shweta Banerjee, Superintending Engineer (Water Works), speaking to a local publication.
Negligence or sabotage?
One of the most serious breaches occurred near Vaishnodevi Chowk, where a contractor for MSEB — Ajay Tripathi — carried out horizontal directional drilling (HDD) without notifying or coordinating with the NMC. The result? A massive rupture in the 500mm Kanhan feeder line, leading to widespread leakage and serious fears of water contamination. A formal complaint has now been lodged against Tripathi.
In another case, T&T Infra Pvt Ltd, working for NHAI, punctured a 200mm supply line near Hasanbagh Gate. That incident left thousands of residents across Nandanvan, KDK College, and nearby slums without water. NMC’s Nehru Nagar Zone 5 has recommended criminal charges against the company.
“This kind of gross negligence cannot go unpunished,” Banerjee said bluntly. “We will now routinely pursue FIRs against those damaging critical public utilities.”
Dry taps, furious citizens
In the month of June alone, the city witnessed 18 such incidents, seven of which occurred between June 16 and 19 — affecting areas like Pratap Nagar Chowk, Bijli Nagar, Sharda Mata Chowk, Ravi Nagar Square, and Civil Lines.
At Pratap Nagar Chowk, a 150mm line was torn apart, leaving 900 homes without water for over 48 hours. In Civil Lines, a 700mm feeder line was damaged, impacting over 22,000 consumers. In many of these cases, the responsible contractors allegedly refused to carry out repairs, leaving the burden entirely on Orange City Water (OCW), which had to dispatch emergency teams to restore supply.
Named in the FIRs are major firms like BCC Transco, Shri Combines, and SS Communication, who have now come under the civic body’s scanner for repeated violations.
As the crisis deepens, demand for water tankers has surged, with the civic machinery struggling to meet public demand. OCW has now called for strict pre-excavation coordination and has urged the NMC to enforce a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all contractors using HDD or trenching methods.
While the water supply teams work on a war footing to restore normalcy, the message from NMC is clear: Negligence will no longer be met with warnings — but with legal action.
