Jamshedpur to become first city in east to get metered water supply
Jamshedpur
1st November, 2007
Jamshedpur is going to be the first city in the east
to have a metered potable water delivery system.
Customer metering and a volumetric tariff regime will
come into effect here from Thursday.
Jamshedpur Utilities & Services Co (Jusco) supplies
potable, clarified and raw water to consumers within the
leasehold area of the city. The company supplies
clarified and raw water to industrial units like Tata
Steel, Tata Motors, Lafarge, Tinplate Co of India, etc.
Jusco has around 26,000 direct consumers in the city,
besides supplying potable water to 20,000 Tata
employees.
According to Jusco managing director Sanjiv Paul,
negotiations are on with the Tata Steel management and
Tata Workers Union so that a consensus on charging for
water supplied to employees can be reached.
The company supplies 40 million gallons of potable water
a day to the city and another 40 million gallons of both
clarified and raw water to mainly industrial consumers.
The new tariff system aims at providing 24- hour water
supply to consumers from the thrice-a-day supply at
present and also at making the consumer pay for what he
consumes.
Jusco, irrespective of the volume of water consumed, has
so far been charging its consumers a flat rate, which
for a majority of domestic consumers is fixed at Rs 140
a month.
"It will minimise leakage and promote efficient use of
water, while allowing us to divert surplus water to
other areas of the city," said GS Basu, general manager
of water management, Jusco.
Under the tariff system, domestic consumers will have to
pay Rs 5 a kilolitre (kl) for monthly consumption of up
to 10 kl, Rs 6 a kl for between 11 kl and 25 kl, Rs 8 a
kl for between 26 and 50 kl and Rs 10 a kl above 50 kl.
The same for bulk domestic consumers has been kept at Rs
6 a kl for consumption of up to 25 kl, Rs 8 a kl for
between 26 kl and 50 kl and Rs 10 a kl above 50 kl.
Similarly, for commercial consumers, between Rs 8 a kl
and Rs 12 a kl for monthly consumption of between 50 kl
and 'more than 100 kl'.
Industrial consumers are to pay Rs 12.50 a kl for up to
500 kl and Rs 15 a kl above 500 kl.
A meter charge ranging between Rs 25 and Rs 300 a month
will be levied, depending on the size of the meter.
Calculations done for a family of five members consuming
15 kl/month (with a per capita daily consumption of 100
litres) show that the water bill will now come to Rs 105
instead of the Rs 140 being paid at present.
"We are expecting a fall in revenue collection (from
water) initially," said Paul.
The Jusco MD said government sector consumers like the
Mango Notified Area Committee (MNAC) and the PHED at
Ghorabandha, though been billed by Jusco regularly, have
not been paying their water bills. The tariff for such
consumers has been kept the lowest (between Rs 4 and Rs
7.50 a kl for different water consumption levels).
Only a handful of cities, such as Chandigarh and
Bangalore, have a fully metered water supply system.
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