Senior officials of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) issued a stern warning to the Surat Integrated Transportation Development Corporation Limited (SITCO) on Wednesday. The reprimand came after repeated incidents of damage to crucial water and drainage pipelines during ongoing infrastructure development in the city.
High-Level Meeting Addresses Recurring Crisis
The issue was escalated to a high-level meeting attended by top civic authorities and SITCO officials. This move followed multiple recent incidents where pipeline breaches led to a severe disruption in the city's water supply network. The most significant outage left lakhs of residents without drinking water for nearly 24 hours, causing widespread inconvenience.
SMC officials expressed deep frustration, stating that despite providing advance information, detailed technical drawings, and on-the-spot support to the executing agencies, the damage to critical pipelines continued unabated. SITCO is currently developing a major Multi-Modal Transport Hub (MMTH) in Surat, which involves extensive construction work.
Lack of Communication and Repeated Lapses
Authorities highlighted a major communication failure during a significant pipeline breach that occurred on Saturday. Senior officials from both SMC and SITCO were not informed in a timely manner about the extent of the damage or the subsequent repair operations. This lack of coordination exacerbated the crisis.
It was revealed that the agency contracted to build a flyover bridge (FOB) for SITCO has been responsible for damaging the water supply pipeline multiple times since the Diwali festival. In a particularly egregious incident, when repair work commenced on Friday night, the pipeline suffered further damage due to careless execution. This forced the civic body to abruptly shut down water supply to several areas without any prior warning to the affected residents.
Strict Action Threatened for Future Incidents
The meeting saw the presence of key figures including Mayor Daxesh Mavani, Municipal Commissioner Shalini Agarwal, Standing Committee Chairman Rajan Patel, and Deputy Municipal Commissioner Nidhi Siwach, alongside senior SITCO representatives.
A senior SMC official, after the meeting, stated that SITCO officials were explicitly instructed to ensure proper and continuous coordination with the civic body's technical teams to prevent any recurrence of such disruptive events. A clear warning was issued: strict action will be taken by the civic body if such lapses are repeated. The nature of the potential action was not specified but underscores the seriousness with which SMC views the negligence affecting essential public services.
