The Deccan Chronicle 10.08.2010
Paying water bills to get easierAug. 9: The BWSSB is all set to start 26 more kiosks in the city to enable consumers pay their water bills 24/7 and also increase revenue collection. The new kiosks will be set up at a cost of Rs 2.9 crore. While some of these kiosks will be set up in core areas of the city, the others will come up in newly added areas of BBMP where water will be supplied once the Cauvery fourth stage, phase two project is complete, said BWSSB executive engineer, Mr Shivaraju.
The kiosks will be set up in Yelahanka, Jakkur, NEI Layout, Pipeline Road near Ayyappa Temple, Dod Bommasandra, Kodlu village, Kammagondanahalli, Talkaveri Layout, Isro Layout, Vijaya Bank Layout, Kothanur Dinne, RBI Layout, NGF Layout, Nagarbhavi 3rd block, Ideal Homes, Yegganahalli, Laggere, Peenya second stage, HSR Layout, Bellandur village, HBR Layout, OMBR Layout, BEML Layout, AECF Layout, Bhuvaneswarinagar and Sadanandanagar, Mr Shivaraj added.
The BWSSB has 6,10,000 metered connections and 74 payment kiosks which help it raise Rs 38 crore in water bills every month. The Board’s billing efficiency is cent percent while the bill collection is almost 98 percent. Consumers in the city owe the Board Rs 37 crore in water bill arrears. There were 3,51,161 water connections in 2002 when a meter reader carrying a bill book had to spend 6-7 minutes per consumer. The consumers were then forced to pay bills at designated counters in their respective sub divisions, which functioned for only four hours a day. The ledger clerks prepared only 50-75 bills per day and the ledger was circulated among 15-20 clerks for updation.
Despite this strenuous effort, error free bills were a dream while securing data for policy making was next to impossible then, an official said.
The introduction of the Computerised revenue management System in 2003 has enabled people to get error free bills and pay them at their convenience in 8 to 10 seconds. The billing process is now transparent and can be audited whenever necessary, he said. According to the official, the introduction of E-governance in 2003, has increased the revenue of BWSSB from Rs 180 crore per annum in 2002 to Rs 455 crore in 2009.
