Tamil Nadu News Papers

Metrowater plans digital meters in commercial buildings

Thursday, 06 April 2017 06:18

The Hindu 05.04.2017

Metrowater plans digital meters in commercial buildings

Going hi-tech:The meters, which are equipped with GPS technology, will be able to detect leaks.

Move aimed towards ensuring judicious use of water

Nearly eight years after an attempt was made to introduce water metering system in the city, Chennai Metrowater proposes to revive the plan by fixing water meters in commercial buildings.

As a first step towards ensuring judicious use of water in the burgeoning city, Metrowater proposes to fix digital water meters in 33,000 commercial buildings in the first phase. The process is already on to identify the buildings, including educational institutions and hospitals, that have water-intensive connections.

Eight lakh consumers

At present, there are nearly eight lakh consumers, including those in added areas and a minimum of 10,000 water/sewer connections are added to the network every year. Though the new consumers are directed to have only metered connections, the water agency often does not collect water charges according to the tariff owing to intermittent water supply.

Learning from its past experiences when the mechanical water meters installed proved faulty and the system could not be implemented completely, the water agency now plans to fix digital meters equipped with GPS technology and facilities to detect leaks and accurate reading.

It may be recalled that there was a resistance from residents to install water meters in the past years, owing to faulty meters and non-availability of quality meters

According to sources in the Metrowater, the water agency would install the water meters and recover the cost later from the consumers. This initiative would also help in accounting of water consumption pattern of domestic and commercial customers and improve distribution.

The metering system would be extended to multi-storeyed buildings based on the outcome of the project. “We have not yet taken a decision on the tariff revision. This would be an initial step towards encouraging water conservation and also checking the supply and consumption trends in the city,” an official said .

The water agency is preparing estimates for the project and plans to implement the project in six months. The metering system would be extended to all existing buildings in phased manner to improve revenue and ensure equitable water distribution.

Novel plan to convert beedi leaf waste into manure

Tuesday, 04 April 2017 05:29

The Hindu 04.04.2017

Novel plan to convert beedi leaf waste into manure

From April 15, conservancy workers not to accept beedi leaf waste from people

Tirunelveli Corporation, which has been struggling for decades in dealing with beedi leaf waste, has come out with a novel idea for collecting it from beedi rollers and converting it into manure.

Since beedi rolling is a predominant activity in Melapalayam area, in which several thousand women are involved, around 10 beedi rolling companies, all having their offices at Melapalayam, are supplying beedi leaves and tobacco to these labourers for making beedis. Consequently, Melapalayam has become a major producer of beedi leaf waste and the civic body is struggling to separate this waste from household waste and convert it into manure.

Recently, Corporation Commissioner S. Sivasubramanian had a meeting with beedi manufacturing company owners on beedi leaf waste management.

Since the Solid Waste Management Act, 2016, requires the individuals producing the waste to segregate it as degradable and nondegradable at source and hand them over to the conservancy workers, Mr. Sivasubramanian asked the beedi manufacturing unit owners to collect beedi leaf waste while getting the beedis from workers.

“The beedi manufacturing companies have been asked to give the rollers reusable bags to keep beedi leaf waste so that it can easily be handed over to the manufacturers while the rolled beedis are returned to the companies. On getting the beedi leaf waste from the rollers, the companies should hand it over to the Corporation employees to convert it into manure,” Mr. Sivasubramanian said.

He added that Corporation conservancy workers would not accept beedi leaf waste from April 15 while collecting waste from the public.

“Our personnel will not collect the beedi leaf waste from the rollers from April 15 as it should be handed over only to the manufacturing companies which, in turn, will forward it to the Corporation dump for converting it into manure. The companies which dare to defy this instruction and allow their workers to dump the waste along the streets will have to face serious consequences,” Mr. Sivasubramanian added.

Property tax in smart cities in Tamil Nadu may take a northern route

Sunday, 02 April 2017 00:00

The New Indian Express 02.04.2017

Property tax in smart cities in Tamil Nadu may take a northern route

CHENNAI: The property tax in six smart cities in the State may go up if the recommendation of the Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) to generate funds under Smart City Mission is implemented.

According to the Ministry, the cities have to generate funds by floating tenders before April 30, 2017, to revise advertisement tax policy, cut down non-revenue water and maximise property tax.

Chennai and Coimbatore have been selected as smart cities in the first round, while Vellore, Madurai, Salem and Thanjavur have been picked in the second round in 2016-17.

The four cities selected in the second round are yet to provide information to MoUD on committed investments. It is learnt that a total of Rs 10,977.50 crore-worth projects have been completed by other Indian cities selected in the second round.

Sources said Vellore, Madurai and Thanjavur have invited tenders for project management consultants to implement smart city projects.

The move has come in the wake of the ministry stating that it would provide funds to appoint consultancy firms if tender is called before April 30.

Similarly, among the cities chosen in the first round, Chennai and Coimbatore lag behind in completing the projects. They, besides Bhopal and Kochi, have completed less than one per cent of projects and find themselves at the bottom of the ranking chart.

A total of Rs 23,387 crore-worth projects have been carried out till date by the 20 cities selected in the first round, according to MoUD.

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