Nov 13, 14 will be dry days

Nov 13, 14 will be �dry� days

Bangaloreans will be left with no choice but to get thrifty with water on November 13 and 14. All of the 19 pumps at the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’s Torekadanahalli pumping station will remain shut on November 13 when the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) will undertake maintenance work at its 220-KV sub-station that supplies power to Torekadanahalli.

KPTCL Chief Engineer Mahadevappa said that the bus at the T K Halli sub-station is not properly aligned, causing fluctuations in the power supply. It might take 4 to 5 hours to repair the main bus and restore normal power supply, after which the second bus in the sub-station could be repaired, he said. A bus in a sub-station is used for distributing electrical power.

Explaining why the BWSSB would require two days to restore normal supply, BWSSB Chief Engineer Venkatraju said that technically the pumping motors cannot be started soon after the power supply was restored. “It requires some time as the water has to be pumped in three places and travel 100 km before it reaches Bangalore. The pumps have to be started one after another after some time gap,” he said.

There are 19 pumps in all the four stages of Cauvery at T K Halli. The water will travel at the speed of 2 metres a second when it is pumped at full speed, he added. The BWSSB will have to calculate the time and start the pumps in Arohalli as it was being done in TK Halli and the pumps have to be started once again in Tatagunni, he said.