When Infrastructure Becomes Customer Experience: The Munak Canal Upgrade and the CX Lesson Every Organization Needs
Picture this: It’s mid-summer in Delhi, and thousands of residents wake to an empty tap. Water pressure drops to nearly zero. Emergency tankers crawl through congested streets. Frustration peaks. This isn’t just a utility failure—it’s a broken customer experience at scale. Let’s look at the new project of Munak Canal.
The Delhi government’s aggressive plan to upgrade the Munak Canal reveals a profound truth for CX professionals: infrastructure invisibly shapes customer expectations. When water flows consistently, citizens never think about canals or treatment plants. But when systems fail, the entire experience crumbles. The Munak Canal upgrade isn’t just about pipes and engineering—it’s about restoring citizen confidence, managing complex stakeholder expectations, and delivering on a promise of reliability that underpins everyday life.
Understanding the Crisis Behind the Solution
The Munak Canal carries nearly 37% of Delhi’s raw water supply. This 102-kilometer aqueduct running from Haryana to Delhi handles over 1,000 cubic units of water daily. Yet this critical lifeline has become increasingly fragile.
Three major breaches in rapid succession—June 2023, October 2023, and July 2024—exposed devastating vulnerabilities. Water supply disrupted across vast areas including Haiderpur, Bawana, Nangloi, and Dwarka. Residents faced weeks without reliable access to this essential service. The psychological impact extended far beyond inconvenience. Citizens questioned whether the system could ever be trusted again.
The root causes cut deep. Delhi’s Jal Board confirmed in April 2024 that transmission losses reached catastrophic levels. The Carrier Line Channel loses about 5% of water, but the Delhi Sub-Branch hemorrhages at 30%. Leakage, theft, encroachments, and basic structural deterioration created a system that couldn’t meet demand. During peak summers, when demand reaches 1,250 million gallons daily against production capacity of only 1,000 million gallons, the deficit becomes desperate. A 250-million-gallon gap forces rationing, tanker deployments, and communitywide suffering.
For customer experience professionals, this scenario illustrates a critical principle: infrastructure gaps directly translate to service delivery failures.
The Two-Track Solution: Quick Wins and Long-Term Transformation
In September 2025, the Delhi government took a decisive step. The Irrigation and Flood Control Department launched a Rs 5.06 crore desilting and cleaning operation covering 25 kilometers from Haiderpur to Inderlok Metro station. This wasn’t cosmetic work. Nearly 48,782 metric tonnes of waste, silt, and debris required removal and proper disposal.
This immediate intervention signals something important to CX professionals: quick fixes matter when trust erodes. By visibly addressing the canal’s deterioration—removing garbage, cleaning banks, improving aesthetic conditions—authorities sent a message: “We hear you, and we’re acting.”
But the deeper transformation addresses the systemic issues that created the crisis. The Delhi government is pursuing three major interconnected projects designed to modernize the entire water infrastructure ecosystem.
Project One: The Elevated Corridor and Tunnel Extension
The government is constructing a 20-kilometer elevated corridor above the Munak Canal from Bawana to Inderlok at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore. This innovative design serves dual purposes: it provides critical traffic relief for north Delhi’s congested commuter corridors while enabling comprehensive infrastructure maintenance underneath.
The extension plan includes a groundbreaking 4-kilometer tunnel connecting Inderlok to Kashmere Gate ISBT. This underground connection will create a signal-free corridor from the Delhi-Haryana border to central Delhi. Officials project this will reduce travel times by up to 40% and ease bottlenecks at Mukarba Chowk, Azadpur, and Roshanara Road.
Why is this relevant to CX professionals? Because it demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of multiple customer segments. Commuters from Haryana, northern Delhi, and northwestern regions now experience improved mobility. Drivers enduring hours of congestion finally see relief. The project tangibly improves daily life for 18 assembly constituencies and 35 municipal wards.
Project Two: The Solar Canopy Initiative
Covering the canal with solar panels represents next-generation thinking about infrastructure. A four-foot wall system on both sides, topped with solar panels, will reduce evaporation and water loss while generating clean renewable energy. This simultaneously addresses conservation, sustainability, and operational resilience.
The solar project spans a 415-kilometer road reconstruction initiative under the Central Road Fund, with plans to transform the Najafgarh drain into a 30 MW canal-top solar power corridor. This converts a problematic infrastructure element into a productive asset generating electricity to power water treatment systems or feed the grid.
Project Three: The Water Master Plan and Comprehensive Modernization
Perhaps most significantly, Water Minister Parvesh Verma articulated a 50-year vision for water management in Delhi. This long-term commitment acknowledges that infrastructure challenges don’t resolve through temporary patches. It requires sustained, scientifically-driven transformation.
The plan includes replacing 40- to 80-year-old water pipelines throughout the city. Verma emphasized that these ancient systems cause widespread contamination and disruptions. The government authorized tenders and began replacement work immediately. Additionally, 249 tubewells are being installed in areas with high water tables and good quality groundwater. The Jal Board tanker fleet is expanding from 901 to 1,327 units to address seasonal peaks.
An IT dashboard for real-time monitoring represents perhaps the most critical CX-related enhancement. This system enables real-time observation of water intake and discharge across every treatment and sewage plant. Transparency, particularly around systems that affect daily life, directly correlates with public trust and satisfaction.
The CX Principle at the Heart of It All: Stakeholder Communication and Engagement
Infrastructure projects uniquely challenge customer experience professionals because the impact extends across millions of people with varying concerns. Residents worry about water quality. Drivers fume over traffic congestion. Businesses calculate losses from disrupted supply chains. Environmental advocates demand sustainability standards.
The Delhi water upgrade reveals how sophisticated stakeholder engagement becomes essential infrastructure management.
Early engagement with local authorities allowed officials to build consensus before major disruptions began. The government conducted site visits and initiated detailed feasibility studies. Three conceptual development plans were prepared accounting for structural features, lane configurations, and intersection designs. This visible due diligence demonstrates respect for affected communities.
Research on infrastructure projects consistently shows that transparent communication and community involvement dramatically improve outcomes. A study examining mega transport infrastructure projects found that stakeholder satisfaction directly predicts project success. When communities understand the “why” behind infrastructure changes and see themselves represented in planning discussions, they become partners rather than victims of disruption.
The principle extends beyond mere communication. Stakeholder engagement must address real concerns with substantive responses. Environmental impacts require mitigation. Temporary disruptions need scheduling around less critical periods. Local businesses need advance notice and support plans.
Water utility research from the Consumer Council for Water confirms that customers want clear communication above almost everything else. They expect to be kept informed about planned maintenance disruptions, service issues, and improvements. When these expectations align with provider actions, satisfaction increases measurably. Customers become more understanding of unavoidable service failures and more willing to endorse necessary infrastructure investments.
The Employee Experience Dimension: Internal Alignment for External Excellence
Infrastructure improvements also reveal an often-overlooked truth: employee experience directly enables customer experience delivery.
Water Minister Verma announced the hiring of 180 new junior engineers and doubled labor force allocation in each assembly from 10 to 20 workers. Thirty-two new super-sucker machines were procured, with 30 additional units in tender. This workforce expansion signals investment in frontline employees who directly interact with affected communities.
When government departments and utility companies treat infrastructure workers—maintenance crews, engineers, customer service representatives—as valued professionals rather than interchangeable labor, they deliver measurably better customer experiences. Employees who feel supported and equipped with proper tools and training naturally communicate more effectively with stressed customers. They solve problems faster. They show empathy grounded in genuine care for service quality.
Recent research on construction project satisfaction found that personnel competence, co-operation quality, and effective site supervision ranked among the top predictors of customer satisfaction. When organizations invest in employee development and create psychologically safe working environments, satisfaction ripples outward to customers.
Measuring Success: The KPIs That Actually Matter
Infrastructure projects typically track completion dates, budget adherence, and technical specifications. But customer experience professionals know these metrics tell only half the story.
Water service quality research identified critical performance indicators that truly matter to users: water quality consistency, pressure stability, service continuity, frequency of interruptions, problem resolution speed, and transparent billing. The proposed Munak Canal upgrades address every single one of these dimensions.
The IT dashboard represents a particularly sophisticated CX measurement approach. Real-time monitoring of water intake and discharge enables rapid identification of emerging problems before they cascade into service disruptions. Predictive maintenance replaces reactive crisis management. Citizens experience fewer unexpected outages. Trust rebuilds through demonstrated reliability.
Public participation indicators offer another crucial lens. Delhi’s infrastructure planning process engaged multiple stakeholder groups through different channels—consultation leaflets, community meetings, individual discussions, and technical modeling. When affected residents feel heard and see their input incorporated into final designs, satisfaction metrics predictably increase. Studies from multiple continents demonstrate that cities implementing robust public participation mechanisms report 15-25% higher resident satisfaction with infrastructure projects.
The Roadmap: Actionable Takeaways for CX and EX Professionals
What can organizations in any sector learn from Delhi’s ambitious water infrastructure transformation?
Recognize that infrastructure is customer experience. Every operational system either enables or impedes customer interactions. Water systems, IT infrastructure, supply chains, logistics networks—these aren’t back-office concerns. They’re frontline customer experience components. When employees struggle with broken systems, customers inevitably suffer. CX leaders must influence infrastructure investments with the same urgency as marketing initiatives.
Build stakeholder maps before building systems. Identify who will be affected, which stakeholder groups hold influence, what their distinct concerns are, and how their participation can improve outcomes. Allocate 15-20% of infrastructure project budgets to genuine stakeholder engagement, not mere information distribution. Real dialogue uncovers concerns that technical teams miss.
Communicate the “why” with transparency. Citizens accept disruption when they understand its purpose and can see progress. Regular updates on project status, challenges, and revised timelines build trust. Use multiple communication channels because audiences have different preferences and accessibility needs. Create non-technical summaries for general audiences while maintaining detailed technical documentation for specialist stakeholders.
Invest in frontline employee preparation. When infrastructure changes impact customer-facing operations, dedicate time to training employees on what’s changing, why it matters, and how to explain it to frustrated customers. Provide them with talking points, escalation protocols, and empowerment to make decisions that prioritize customer satisfaction during transition periods.
Establish predictive measurement systems before launch. Don’t wait until projects complete to assess satisfaction. Implement real-time dashboards monitoring customer satisfaction scores, issue resolution times, and service quality metrics throughout implementation. This enables mid-course corrections before problems compound.
Define long-term vision alongside short-term fixes. The Munak Canal strategy worked because it combined immediate visible actions (cleaning, debris removal) with transformative long-term initiatives (solar canopy, tunnel extension, comprehensive modernization). Quick wins restore faith. Long-term vision sustains commitment through inevitable disruptions.
Create feedback loops that close the circle. Collect community input, demonstrate how that input shaped decisions, explain what feedback you couldn’t implement and why, and maintain ongoing communication. This cycle builds the reciprocal trust that transforms customers into advocates.
The Convergence: When Infrastructure Meets Human Experience
The Munak Canal upgrade ultimately reflects a shift in how forward-thinking organizations approach infrastructure. No longer purely technical endeavors, infrastructure projects now demand human-centered design thinking rooted in customer experience principles.
Water Minister Parvesh Verma articulated this perspective: “Delhi needs futuristic and innovative solutions that cater to the growing infrastructural needs of its citizens. This government is moving away from short-term fixes toward durable projects that will serve the city for decades. Every new project is designed to bring visible improvement in citizens’ daily lives.”
This philosophy transcends water management. It applies to organizational infrastructure—technology platforms, operational systems, communication networks, and workforce development. CX leaders in every industry now face a choice: continue viewing infrastructure as background support, or recognize it as the foundation upon which all customer experiences build.
Delhi’s water crisis became an opportunity to demonstrate that infrastructure investment is customer experience investment. The elevated corridor eases daily commute stress. The solar canopy ensures sustainability without sacrificing reliability. The modernized pipeline network promises clean water without fear. The IT dashboard delivers transparency that citizens increasingly demand.
These aren’t engineering projects with customer experience attached as an afterthought. They’re customer experience initiatives delivered through infrastructure transformation.
Practical Implementation Framework for Your Organization
Start where Delhi started: with honest assessment of which infrastructure gaps most damage customer and employee experiences.
Interview frontline employees serving customers. Ask them which systems frustrate them most. Identify infrastructure elements directly causing customer complaints. Prioritize addressing the intersection where infrastructure weakness creates both external frustration and internal inefficiency.
Form a stakeholder advisory group including customers, employees, community representatives, and technical experts. Give them real influence over project parameters, not symbolic input. Let their perspectives reshape approaches that pure technical optimization might miss.
Develop a communication architecture with clear ownership. Who communicates with whom, through which channels, on what schedule? Dedicate resources to ensure consistency. Assign community liaison officers who build relationships over time. These investments in human connection consistently outperform generic mass communications.
Sequence projects to build momentum. Deliver visible quick wins early to prove commitment. Build toward transformational initiatives that require sustained effort and investment. Layer stakeholder engagement throughout every phase, not as an afterthought but as integral project infrastructure.
Finally, measure what matters. Track not just technical completion metrics but genuine improvements in customer and employee experience. Monitor satisfaction trends throughout project implementation, not just at launch. Use real-time feedback to refine approaches mid-course rather than waiting for expensive post-project evaluations.
The Munak Canal remains critical infrastructure in Delhi’s water ecosystem. But it’s now something more: a case study in how customer experience principles can reshape how organizations approach infrastructure investment and transformation. As CX leaders, this lesson carries profound implications. Infrastructure isn’t background support. It’s the customer experience foundation upon which every interaction builds.
