Pipelines · Service
Leak Detection and Buried Pipeline Survey
Establishing where a buried main actually runs, and where the ground around it has gone wet or washed out — so a repair crew opens one pit in the right place instead of four in the wrong ones.
Since 2003 we have surveyed over 1.5 lakh km by radar, held 100 km a day at peak and delivered 700 KM inside 30 days without hiring a single system. Outside Delhi NCR we accept projects from ₹1,00,000 upward, since rigs and crews travel from our Faridabad base. Within NCR there is no minimum at all.
Overview
The wet patch is rarely above the hole
Water escaping a pressurised main travels along whatever path the ground offers — a service trench, a sand seam, the outside of another pipe — and surfaces wherever that path allows. Digging under the visible damp is how utilities end up with three empty excavations. Radar reads the saturated and eroded zone around the pipe itself, and pipe tracing fixes where the main truly runs, which is usually not where the drawing says.
- Buried main routed and depth-profiled
- Saturation and washout zones identified
- Excavation narrowed to a targeted dig
- Metallic and non-metallic pipe both handled
Scope
What a pipeline investigation covers
Route Confirmation
Actual alignment of the main established on the ground, not taken from an old plan.
Route Confirmation
Actual alignment of the main established on the ground, not taken from an old plan.
Depth Profiling
Cover depth along the run so the excavation is planned to the right level.
Depth Profiling
Cover depth along the run so the excavation is planned to the right level.
Saturation Mapping
Zones where soil moisture departs sharply from the surrounding ground.
Saturation Mapping
Zones where soil moisture departs sharply from the surrounding ground.
Erosion Zones
Loss of material around the pipe, which often precedes a road collapse.
Erosion Zones
Loss of material around the pipe, which often precedes a road collapse.
Crossing Identification
Other services crossing the line, so the repair dig does not create a second failure.
Crossing Identification
Other services crossing the line, so the repair dig does not create a second failure.
Dig Point Marking
A marked target area on the surface with a stated confidence, ready for the repair gang.
Dig Point Marking
A marked target area on the surface with a stated confidence, ready for the repair gang.
Clients
Who brings us onto a pipeline
Municipal water boards and jal nigams carry the largest problem — non-revenue water, where a substantial share of treated supply is lost between the plant and the consumer, and where the network drawings often predate the officers using them. Surveying the trunk mains and identifying the worst zones is where recovery starts.
City gas distribution licensees need route certainty for a different reason: a third-party strike on a live gas main is a safety event, so before any tie-in, road widening or adjacent excavation, the alignment has to be proved on the ground. Industrial plants and refineries hold decades of buried process and utility lines whose records rarely survived the last three plant modifications.
Campuses, townships, hotels and hospitals form a steady stream of smaller work — an unexplained wet patch, a pressure drop, a rising water bill — where the network was built by a contractor who left no as-built. And civil contractors call us before excavating near a known main, because striking someone else's pipeline is a cost that lands on whoever held the shovel. Route data is delivered in the same formats as our utility mapping work.
Method
Techniques applied and their limits
| Route tracing | Electromagnetic locating for metallic mains; GPR where the pipe is HDPE, PVC, AC or otherwise non-conductive |
|---|---|
| Tracer wire / sonde | Used where an accessible entry point allows a sonde to be introduced into a non-metallic line |
| Moisture interpretation | Saturated soil changes radar velocity and attenuation measurably against surrounding ground |
| Erosion signature | Disturbed bedding and loss of layering around the pipe read as a distinct anomaly |
| Survey pattern | Traverses along and across the suspected alignment, extended well past the visible symptom |
| Deliverable | Marked alignment on the surface, depth-annotated route plan, and a target dig zone with stated confidence |
| Coordination | Works alongside the asset owner's own acoustic or pressure-step testing where that is already in progress |
| Ground caveat | Performance falls in clay-rich, saline and already-waterlogged ground, where moisture contrast is weak |
Radar detects the ground condition around a pipe; it does not hear the leak itself. Acoustic correlation and pressure-step testing remain the primary tools for pinpointing an active leak on a pressurised main, and we work with them rather than claiming to replace them. Where a client's ground is uniformly saturated — monsoon conditions, high water table — we say at survey planning stage that contrast will be poor, instead of collecting data that cannot answer the question.
Commercials
The economics of surveying first
The case for this work is simple arithmetic. A road excavation carries the dig, the traffic management, the reinstatement to municipal specification and the permission that goes with it. Do that three times chasing a leak and the survey that would have narrowed it to one pit was the cheapest line in the budget.
Pricing follows the same variables as other radar work: length of main, congestion of the corridor, surface type and access window. Emergency call-outs and night working on arterial roads carry a premium simply because of standing time. Long network-scale surveys for a water board are priced per kilometre with a mobilisation covering the whole programme rather than each stretch.
Where the client wants the repair executed as well, our own crews can excavate and reinstate under the relevant permission — handled by our RoW desk — so the investigation and the fix stay on one accountable contract. Broader pricing structure is set out in the GPR survey cost guide.
Assurance
How we avoid sending a crew to the wrong pit
A dig target is only issued when the moisture or erosion anomaly and the traced pipe alignment agree with each other — a wet zone with no pipe beneath it is reported as an unexplained anomaly, not dressed up as a leak location. Every target carries a stated confidence and a marked tolerance zone rather than a single point, because a false precision that sends a gang to a spot two metres off is worse than an honest radius. Where our survey and the asset owner's acoustic results disagree, we report the disagreement and recommend how to resolve it instead of quietly adopting whichever answer is more convenient. After excavation, clients are asked to confirm what was found, and that outcome is fed back into our interpretation records — over years of network work this feedback loop is what keeps our hit rate honest rather than assumed. All work runs under our ISO 9001:2015 quality and ISO 45001:2018 safety systems.
What our own fleet has actually delivered
FAQ
Pipeline & leak survey — common questions
It narrows the search substantially by showing where the ground is saturated or eroded, but acoustic correlation is the tool that pinpoints an active leak on a pressurised main. We are clear about that distinction rather than overselling radar.
It is the normal situation, and it is exactly why route tracing exists. We treat old drawings as a hypothesis, confirm the alignment on the ground and report where reality differs from the record.
Yes, though not by electromagnetic locating, which only works on conductive lines. For HDPE, PVC and asbestos cement we use radar, and where an access point exists we can introduce a sonde to trace the line directly.
No. The survey is conducted entirely from the surface with the system live and in normal operation, which is one of the practical advantages over intrusive investigation.
Route tracing works year-round. Leak-zone identification depends on moisture contrast, which is genuinely weaker when the whole area is already saturated. We will tell you that at planning stage rather than after collecting inconclusive data.
Yes. Network-scale work is run as a programme with a single mobilisation, typically starting on trunk mains and zones with the highest recorded non-revenue water, then working outward on the evidence.
Up to 100 km in a single day is what we have sustained on open corridors, working double shifts with owned systems. A single 30-day programme has delivered 700 KM, which remains our record. Cumulative delivery has now passed 1.5 lakh km of GPR survey. How fast we move on your job depends on how crowded the ground is and what the report has to prove.
Losing water and digging blind?
Tell us the pipe material, approximate route and what you have already excavated — we will scope a survey that narrows it to one dig.
Request a Pipeline SurveyLeak detection and pipeline survey — method, output and detailed questions
Mezux Touch investigates suspected leaks on buried pressurised and gravity systems, and we are direct about what radar contributes. Radar does not hear a leak. It reads the saturated and eroded ground around a pipe, which narrows a search substantially but does not pinpoint an active escape. Acoustic correlation is what pinpoints a leak on a pressurised main, and we work alongside it rather than claiming to replace it. What radar adds is the position of the pipe itself, the ground condition around it, and any cavity the escaping water has already created.
How the work is run
Route tracing establishes where the main actually runs, which is frequently not where the drawing says, because excavating under the visible damp is how utilities end up with three empty pits. The saturated zone around the pipe is then mapped to narrow the search area. Where the line is non-metallic and an entry point exists, a sonde is introduced to trace it directly, which is the highest-confidence non-intrusive option available. On gravity systems the useful measurement is different: continuous invert depth along the run, which reveals lost fall that a camera survey cannot diagnose.
What you receive
A traced route plan showing where the main actually runs against where the record placed it. A saturation map narrowing the probable leak zone, with the recommended excavation position stated rather than implied. On gravity runs, a continuous invert level profile issued as its own drawing, because on many jobs that profile is what the client acts on. Any void found around the pipe reported separately, since a washout is a structural risk to the surface above rather than a plumbing problem. Where acoustic correlation is required to complete the diagnosis, that is stated at scoping rather than after an inconclusive survey.
Beyond the basics
Can GPR pinpoint an active leak? No, and we do not claim it. It narrows the search by showing where ground is saturated or eroded; acoustic correlation is what pinpoints an escape on a pressurised main.
Why dig where you say rather than where it is wet? Because water travels along whatever path the ground offers and surfaces wherever that path allows. The damp patch is frequently nowhere near the leak.
Can you trace plastic and AC water mains? Yes, using radar rather than electromagnetic locating. Where an accessible entry point exists, a sonde traces a non-metallic main directly.
What do you do differently on a gravity sewer? We profile invert level continuously. A camera shows the inside of a pipe; it does not show whether the pipe still runs downhill.
Do you find voids caused by the leak? Frequently, and they are reported separately. A washout is often the more urgent finding because it threatens the surface rather than the supply.
Terms used on this page
Acoustic correlation — a method that locates a leak by the sound it makes, used alongside radar rather than replaced by it. Saturated zone — ground carrying escaped water around a pipe, which radar detects even though it cannot hear the leak. Sonde — a small transmitter introduced into a non-metallic pipe so it can be traced from the surface. Invert profile — a continuous record of the inside bottom level along a gravity run, which reveals lost fall. Washout — a cavity formed where escaping water has removed material from around a buried service.
