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E-Governance

Civic body to put information about works on website

Thursday, 09 January 2014 07:32 administrator
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The Times of India                09.01.2014 

Civic body to put information about works on website

VADODARA: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) will for the first time go public with information regarding ongoing works in the city. The information will be put up on the website of the civic body.

The VMC has decided to take the step in wake of the fact that there was no other avenue for citizens to gather the information. The civic body's website too was not interactive and saw little participation from the citizens.

VMC commissioner Manish Bhardwaj said that details of ongoing works in all the wards of the city will be put up on the website. "Citizens can access these and get details like when did the work commence, its deadline for completion, costs involved and the kind of work that needs to be done," he said.

Bhardwaj added that the citizens can bring any deviations like delays to the notice of the civic body or their local councillors so that corrective steps can be taken. Officials have been instructed to ensure that the data is uploaded on the website at the earliest.

 

Paying taxes made easy with online portal

Wednesday, 08 January 2014 12:08 administrator
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The Times of India          08.01.2014

Paying taxes made easy with online portal

GUWAHATI: In a bid to provide relief to the city's tax payers, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has launched online payment of property tax which is its prime source of revenue.

At present, there are 1,76,099 holdings under the corporation with a total property tax revenue of around Rs 27 crore. GMC collects around Rs 25 crore from these properties at its zonal office as well as through tax collectors going from house to house.

"For the convenience of the taxpayer and to ensure timely collection of property tax, GMC started inviting bids from various payment gateway service providers in December, 2012. We have finally selected Billdesk to oversee collections," said GMC commissioner S. Vishwanathan.

Now residents of the city may login through www.gmcportal.in to view their property tax amount and pay online. There are different options for completing the transaction like debit card, credit card and net banking.

 

Automatic Meter System to Fetch Good Revenues to Water Board

Tuesday, 07 January 2014 09:29 administrator
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The New Indian Express               07.01.2014 

Automatic Meter System to Fetch Good Revenues to Water Board

An AMR which was recently installed at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad | Express Photo
An AMR which was recently installed at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad | Express Photo

To bring transparency in water  readings for high consumption bulk and other water connections of sizes between 25 mm and 500 mm dia, Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has started the process of installing ultrasonic water meters called Automatic Meter Reading (AMR).

Through fixing AMRs, the water board is expected to increase its revenues to the tune of `103 crore in the next five years while the total cost of installing 1,318 AMRs is about`12.58 crore.

With the help of AMRs, the board is expecting increase in revenues of `1.73 crore per month. The expected increase in revenue per annum will be around Rs 20.75 crore. Besides, there will be a saving of 5.25 MGD. Before the implementation of the project, the metered supplies are 35 MGD and expected quantity after the implementation of the project would be 40.25 MGD.

Three days ago the water board has installed one such AMR at Banjara Hills by M/s Chetas Agency. The rest of 1,317 bulk water supply connections will be fixed with AMRs by end of this month.

The AMR with GSM technology does remote meter reading through VPN based GPRS technology and sends water consumption data directly to HMWS&SB server. The state government wanted the water board to initiate the unaccounted for water (UFW) process to account for at least 35 to 40 million gallons per day (MGD) per month that is supplied to 1,318 bulk consumers.

Water Board officials told Express that out of the total `12.58 crore project, the Centre has allotted `4.43 crore, while the board collected `2.57 crore from 435 applicants towards AMR charges through the single window cell (SWC). The remaining `5.58 crore would be met from the board’s funds towards forecast revenue generation for the next five years from AMR metering system (`103 crore).

Last year, HMWS&SB submitted the proposals for AMR system for 1,318 bulk connections. The SWC collected Rs 2.57 crore towards AMR charges from 435 applicants. About 883 bulk connections are consuming more than 90 per cent of bulk requirement ie 32.49 MGD out of 35.90 MGD.

They said that the entire cost of the AMR project would initially be borne by the bidder within four months of initial project period.

 
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