Kullu residents raise concern over leaking water storage tank in Sultanpur area

An under construction parking lot in the Upper Sultanpur area of Kullu town has allegedly led to subsidence of land due to which a water storage tank having a capacity of 2.43 lakh litre has started leaking for the last few days.

A joint team of Kullu Municipal Council (MC), officials of the parking lot construction company, BSNL and Jal Shakti Department today inspected the spot.

Residents lamented that the tank was leaking from around six crevasses, but the authorities concerned were unconcerned about the issue. Residents feared that the tank might burst and cause damage to the under construction parking lot in Sultanpur and habitation downhill in Akhara Bazaar. They urged the authorities concerned to temporarily fix crevasses in the tank at the earliest and a permanent solution be found to stop water leakage.

A local resident Gopal Krishan Sharma said at least six houses had become vulnerable and a major mishap could happen anytime if immediate measures were not taken to stop water leakage from the tank. He said, “Thousands of litres of water is wasted every day. Water is seeping in the hill, which might loosen the strata and cause landslides, which have been witnessed in the area earlier too. There is also a danger of landslide on the road heading from Akhara Bazaar to Sultanpur. Leakage from the tank is increasing continuously and taken the form of a drain.”

He alleged that drains were not constructed by the parking lot contractor which had further aggravated the situation. Kullu Jal Shakti Department Executive Engineer (XEN) Amit Kumar said the hill slope had destabilised due to excavation for the construction of the parking lot at Upper Sultanpur without considering its precarious nature.

He said, “The department has requested many times to the MC and the BSNL to take necessary and strenuous steps to stabilise the slope in a scientific manner in order to safeguard the road and reservoir, but still no action has been taken in this connection.”

He said the department had been continuously monitoring the tank since Dussehra and now the water seepage had increased. He said, “The tank was inspected after draining water today. No structural failure has been found in the tank. Water seepage might be due to dislocation of pipes from the tank due to subsidence of land. The field staff has been deployed to find the fault.”

He said the MC and the BSNL authorities had assured to initiate protection work to stabilise the slope at the earliest. Kumar said at present, there was no evident danger of collapse of the tank, but as a precautionary measure, by-pass arrangements would be made. Water would not be stored in the tank till adequate protection measures were taken by the BSNL, he added.

He said, “A large number of inhabitants of Sultanpur and other areas get water supply from this tank. There will be water crisis in the city if the tank is closed.”