Nagpur Municipal Corporation hikes Ambazari lake water rates too

NAGPUR: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation's (NMC) water works department (WWD), which is under fire for hiking water tariff within seven months without maintaining transparency, has also increased the rates for Ambazari lake water. This will lead to higher tariff for MIDC Hingna, Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), SRPF and Nagpur University.

NMC has also hiked the penalty charges for illegal connections.WWD hiked the water tariff with effect from April 1, but made it public a couple of days ago by submitting it to the standing committee. Along with tariff of potable water supplied to residential and commercial consumers, NMC had also quietly hiked charges of Ambazari lake's raw water, which is contaminated with sewage water.

The rates have been increased by 5%. This is the second hike in seven months after a revision of 5% on August 12, 2011.The revision will be a setback for MIDC Hingna, which lifts huge quantity of water from the Ambazari lake every day. According to data available from MIDC Hingna, around 8-10 million litres per day (MLD) water is lifted by MIDC Hingna from the lake. After treatment, MIDC Hingna supplies the water to around 1,500 industrial units and some villages including Digdoh Nildoh, Shramik Nagar, and a couple of small villages adjacent to Hingna MIDC.

Since the quantity of water is huge, the 5% increase will make a big impact on MIDC finances.Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) and Nagpur University also lift water from Ambazari lake, though in small quantities. NIT uses the raw water after treatment for its international standard swimming pool on North Ambazari road. The SRPF supplies the water for household use, excluding drinking, to its quarters situated at SRPF colony at Hingna, that too after treatment. Nagpur University utilizes the water for all use other than drinking.According to the revised rates, Hingna MIDC will have to pay Rs5.51 per unit for Ambazari lake water.

The charges are equivalent to what NMC applies for potable water supplied to residential consumers with consumption between 1 to 20 units.NMC supplies the potable water to residential consumers after completing all filtration processes. But MIDC Hingna has to lift the water and treat it at its expense. The major problem for Hingna MIDC is that water in Ambazari lake is highly contaminated due to sewage from Wadi and adjoining areas, and industrial waste from some industries that flows into the lake round the clock in huge quantities.An official from MIDC Hingna said the rates charged to its consumers are decided by the MIDC head quarters.

"Revised rates will be conveyed to higher officials. We cannot comment or take any decision unless approval comes from headquarters," he said.A senior NIT official said that there was no communication from NMC regarding revision in raw water charges.The WWD has also said that penalty charges for illegal connections have been increased from Rs5,250 (residential) to Rs5,512.50, and from Rs15,750 (other than residential) to Rs16,537.50.