New Delhi, March 31 -- More than a week after operations at Chandrawal water treatment plant (WTP) came to a complete halt due to flooding of its pump house, the oldest water treatment facility in the Capital continues to struggle to limp back to normalcy. According to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the legacy motors and electrical equipment are decades old, and their spare parts are not readily available. Moreover, the moisture in the pumps has led to multiple instances of faults, leading to tripping. Consequently, the central Delhi catchment areas of the plant continue to face rationing, with the twice-a-day supply reduced to half, coupled with contamination issues. A senior DJB official said that the treatment units of the plant have been working since 1935 and 1955, but their outdated design and dilapidated state have led to multiple breakdowns and delayed restorations. "The motors installed at Chandrawal WTP are customised old units with a 6.6 KV rating, and their spare parts are not readily available. These heavy-duty motors require considerable time for repair and restoration. To safeguard the repaired motors and prevent flashing or short-circuiting, extra precautions need to be taken, and the motors are being operated intermittently," an official said, adding that it may take three more days to stabilise the system. The city's oldest plant has seen multiple outages due to repair works over the past year. The current episode has lasted the longest as the operations of the plant were hit on March 22 and came to a complete halt after a major 600mm diameter backwash pipeline near the pump house was damaged, leading to severe waterlogging within the premises. As a result, all electrical and mechanical (E&M) equipment became non-operational, bringing pumping activities to a standstill. The impacted part of the plant supplies around 58 million gallons of drinking water in the Central and North Delhi areas. The DJB was able to restore pumping of around 47MGD on March 27 with the target to restore the remaining 11MGD by Saturday, but the motors again gave up. "Around 5.30pm on Saturday evening, an 18MGD pump set again developed a fault, leading to tripping. We had to work overnight to restore the pumpset to operation at 1.45pm. At present, 47 MGD pumping is in operation, and water supply is being maintained as per the roster," another DJB official said. Due to residual moisture, faults have been repeatedly occurring in the repaired motors during operational hours, affecting the normal water supply. Even as the plant awaits full restoration, the DJB has enforced a new roster for water supply in the plant's catchment area. It said areas like Hindu Rao Hospital, Civil Lines, Kamla Nagar, Roop Nagar, Shakti Nagar, parts of Delhi University, Vijay Nagar, Roop Nagar, Paharganj, Karol Bagh, Rajendra Nagar, Patel Nagar and East Patel Nagar will only be getting water in the morning hours - while others such as parts of Shastri Nagar and Inderlok will get supply in the evening as restoration work continues. Several tail-end areas still await restoration. DJB has said that to provide interim relief and ensure continued water availability, around 100 additional water tankers have been deployed in the affected areas....