Urban News

Hyderabad

Aug. 27: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has decided to hike the price of the water supplied through tankers.

The Water Board has constituted a committee to examine the rise in expenditure involved in water supply due to the rise in diesel prices and suggest the rate of hike.

The committee comprising senior officials of the Board and representatives of (HMWS&SB) Tankers Association will submit its report in 15 days.
The committee has been constituted following a demand by the Association to increase the tariff in view of rising prices of essential commodities apart from the diesel price rise.

Presently, 5,000 litres of water supplied through tanker costs Rs 250. There has been no price revision in the last two years.
Nearly 500 private mobile tankers run for the Board on a contract basis, of which 200 make a total of 1,400 trips daily to many slums in the Greater Hyderabad area.

On an average, 1.2 crore litres of water is supplied through tankers every day in Greater Hyderabad.
The contract between the Board and the tanker owners stipulates that the Board gets Rs 110 of the Rs 250 water charge and the rest goes to the tanker owner.

The (HMWS&SB) Tankers Association president, Mr Muhammad Khan, said the water supply charge for each trip must be increased by Rs 60.
“Even the salaries of drivers and cleaners have increased. We will be incurring huge losses if the price of each trip is not hiked,” he said.