Indian Express 19.08.2009
Coming, 5 lakh electronic meters to ensure careful usage of water
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon install electronic water meters for five lakh water consumers across the city to prevent wastage of water.
The civic body hopes that metered water connections, to be installed at a cost of Rs 450 crore, will lead to accuracy in billing and induce careful consumption. After carrying out a pilot project with AMRs (automatic meter reading devices), the civic corporation is now set to implement the project on a full scale and install about 3,0,500 new electronic meters in the city within the next year. Of these 46,015 will be installed in the island city while the eastern and western suburbs will get 95,999 and 1, 63,030 meters respectively. Three companies- Actaris from France, Arad from Israel and Chetak from Pune which carried out the pilot project will implement the project.
AMRs automatically collect data from the water meter and transfer it to a central database for billing. This enables billing to be based on actual consumption rather than on an estimate based on previous consumption. With most meters out of order, consumers are usually charged on approximations.
Hand held units (HHU) will record the reading of the meter along with the connection number. “There will be no need to send meter supervisors and readers on the field. It will also avoid manual errors. The AMR will be connected to the central database at the Worli billing centre and billing will be done automatically through AMR data,” an officer from the hydraulic engineering department of the BMC said. The make of the meters will be strong and they will be tamper-proof. The size of the meter will vary depending on the amount of water consumed. The meters will facilitate implementation of the ‘telescopic rate’ system whereby higher consumption will attract higher costs per unit.
Based on the pilot project undertaken last year in which electronic meters were installed in the city, eastern and western suburbs, a study report was prepared and the findings suggested that the AMR system is feasible for Mumbai. “The report was positive and so we will go ahead and replace the existing meters with electronic meters. It will be help us simplify the process of billing and be more accurate,” said Dinesh Gondaliya, Hydraulic Engineer, BMC.
No rent on consumers: standing committee
Some members of the civic standing committee on Tuesday opposed the administration’s move to impose rents of the electronic bills on the consumers. “The BMC is planning to extract 70% of the rent for five years from the citizens. Why should the citizen pay the installation charges and rent for maintenance of the meters,” asked BJP corporator Yogesh Sagar. An official from the hydraulic department said maintenance costs have to be paid by the consumers. The standing committee finally decided not to impose rents on the consumers
