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Water Supply

Water board to get 100 cr.

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The Hindu       06.01.2014 

Water board to get 100 cr.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has assured that the government would immediately release Rs. 100 crore to Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board to improve drinking water and drainage facilities in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits.

At a meeting with officials to review drinking water needs of Hyderabad, Mr. Rao stressed the need to increase supply of drinking water for the city from the present 20 tmc feet to 35 tmc feet keeping in view the growth in population in the coming years. Apart from drinking water, the administration should also ensure that the rain water was not stagnant on roads. Asking officials to study how to step up supply of water to the city, Mr. Rao suggested that works to divert Godavari water from Yellampally should be speeded up.

 

Drinking water supply to be resumed today

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The Hindu          23.12.2014  

Drinking water supply to be resumed today

Drinking water supply in the city, which was disrupted following the charging and commissioning of newly-laid pipelines, will be resumed on Tuesday.

The water supply to various parts of the city had remained disrupted since December 3. Water authority officials informed the council meeting held on Monday that supply would be resumed by Tuesday morning. Among the areas affected were Ayyanthole, Koorkenchery, Vilvattam, Ollukkara, Adattu, Arimbur, Manalur and Nadathara.

The supply would be normalised in a week, water authority officials said. The authority had given prior information about supply being affected and the corporation had made alternative arrangements by distributing water to the affected areas in lorries. At the council meeting, some councillors raised protests, alleging that water supply via lorries had not reached several areas.

Mayor Rajan Pallan said steps would be taken to open more Akshaya centres within the corporation limit. He denied the allegation raised by councillor John Kanjirathingal that illegal construction was going on in the corporation limits. The Mayor challenged Mr. Kanjirathingal to furnish evidence to prove his allegation.

No new autorickshaw stand was permitted in the city, the Mayor said in reply to councillor Lally James’ question. The demand for new auto-taxi parking stands was under the consideration of the Urban Planning Standing Committee, he said.

 

BWSSB scalds water users with steep tariff hike

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The Times of India         03.11.2014 

BWSSB scalds water users with steep tariff hike

 

Bengaluru: Announcing a hike in water tariff for the first time in nine years, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) on Sunday dealt a costly blow to all categories of consumers with an increase in the range of 17% to 73%. To make matters worse, the meter service charge has been linked to the water usage and the sanitary charges too have been hiked.

The revised rates are effective from Sunday and will be incorporated in the bills to be issued from December 1.

The minimum water bill (including meter and sanitation charges) will now be Rs 100, up from Rs 83 — increase of 20.48%. For domestic users, sanitation charges have increased by 66% and meter charges by up to 1400%. For those using more than 8,000 liters, the sanitation charge will be 25% of their water supply bill.

As a result, a domestic user who used to get a bill of Rs 475, would now have to cough up Rs 769 for the same usage. An increase of 62%.

For commercial users, the tariff (per 1,000 litres) for those using up to 10,000 litres (base category) has been hike to Rs 50 from Rs 36 — increase of 38%.

The BWSSB said the increase is not too high and was necessary for the board to bridge the gap between its revenue and expenditure. "In the last nine years, the expenditure has increased to Rs 1,222 crore (216%) from Rs 386.75 crore, while the revenue has only grown to Rs 759 crore from Rs 385 crore, necessitating the hike," it said.

Sajjan Raj Mehta, a consumer and trade activist, said: "Bengalureans will certainly accept increase in rates if BWSSB provides a complaint-less service. Is BWSSB doing that? No. Moreover no hike of over 15% is acceptable. To say they've not increased it in the last nine years is no justification."

 


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