Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has awarded a ₹30 lakh tender to desilt and replace a damaged 150-metre sewer line in Industrial Area Phase I, in an effort to stop recurring sewage overflow into Sukhna Choe. The work covers a stretch near the SDM East office and along the slaughterhouse.
The municipal corporation’s public health wing took the decision after engineers found that severe blockages had made it impossible to clear the existing pipeline. The blockages were linked to sewage from the now-demolished Sanjay Colony and Colony No. 4, according to officials cited in the report.
The replacement will involve desilting the affected section and installing a new pipeline. The damaged line is located at one of the points where sewage has previously reached the Sukhna Choe, a water channel that has become the focus of continuing civic and regulatory attention.
Municipal officials said all other sewage discharge points into the choe have been plugged. However, they also confirmed that additional stretches may soon require strengthening or replacement, indicating that the current project is an intervention on a larger and continuing sewer network problem rather than the end of the work.
The project is being undertaken amid strict oversight by the National Green Tribunal, which has been monitoring efforts to prevent sewage from entering the city’s choes. The issue was recently discussed in detail at a meeting chaired by the UT chief secretary, with the municipal corporation required to submit regular progress reports to the UT administration.
The tender places responsibility for the immediate repair with the municipal corporation’s public health wing, while the wider compliance process remains linked to UT-level monitoring and NGT reviews. The immediate civic objective is to eliminate the damaged section that engineers say cannot be restored through further blockage-clearing work.
The municipal corporation’s officials have not indicated a completion date in the supplied report. Further action will depend on the execution of the replacement work and the assessment of other sewer stretches that may require strengthening or replacement to prevent further discharge into Sukhna Choe.
