India, Jan. 10 -- Delhi water minister Parvesh Verma on Friday said that the scale of deterioration in Delhi's water infrastructure is far more severe than previously estimated, and that more than half of the city's pipelines are 20 years or olderand will require complete replacement.

Addressing the Delhi Assembly in response to a question raised by Malviya Nagar MLA Satish Upadhyay during Question Hour, Verma said the government aims to replace the entire ageing network, with tenders for all related works to be issued within the next year. However, he cautioned that the full overhaul would take seven to eight years to complete, with about 30% of the work finished within the current government's tenure.

"Out of nearly 16,000 km of water...