The Hindu 04.11.2013
Corpn. plans to regulate expenditure on borewell maintenance
The Coimbatore Corporation will in the next few months
initiate efforts to streamline the functioning of borewells in the city.
According to sources, the move is aimed at optimising power consumption
and thereby saving on the expenditure on power, and ensuring that the
contractors did not overcharge the civic body for the borewell
maintenance.
The sources said that the Corporation
maintained nearly 2,000 borewells in the city, which it used for pumping
water to public convenience facilities, parks, schools, shopping
complexes, bus stands and urban health centres. The Corporation paid the
power consumption charges to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution
Corporation, which worked out to around Rs. 50 lakh a month.
The Corporation maintained 264 public toilets, 160 parks and a little over 80 schools.
The Corporation also used the water to meet the needs of residents, who, otherwise, did not have access to non-potable water.
When
the Corporation audited the power tariff it came to light that very
many connections were categorised commercial. They ought to be under the
category meant for local body. The civic body then initiated efforts to
have the connections reclassified to save on energy, for the
reclassification would mean that the civic body paid only Rs. 5.50 a
unit.
On the maintenance front, the civic body was
until recently paying Rs. 1,550 a borewell a month to the contractors.
Since October 1, 2013 it had been paying Rs. 2,300 a borewell a month to
the contractors. Though this revision had come after a decade or so,
the Corporation was keen on ensuring that it paid the money only for
those borewells that functioned at least for a minimum prescribed period
in a month.
To ensure that the contractors operated
the borewells, the civic body planned to automate the system to track
their functioning. This would be done in the next couple of months.
The
sources added that in optimising the functioning of borewells, the
Corporation was not for closure of the borewells as they would meet the
city’s emergency water needs during when the monsoons failed.