The government is likely to introduce sewerage tariff and enhance the domestic water tariff to recover the operation and maintenance cost of water supply and sewerage services from beneficiaries.

The government has proposed to collect a one-time deposit and monthly sewerage tariff for sewerage connections, said P R Meena, secretary of PWD. A proposal has been moved and is awaiting Cabinet approval, she said.

Though a notification in this regard was issued, it wasn’t implemented due to lacuna in the policy. It was being re-notified by  including all users, instead of limiting it to only beneficiaries of Puducherry under the Comprehensive Sewerage Scheme for Urban Areas of Puducherry (CSSUAP), he said.

With the government implementing the  underground sewerage scheme at an outlay of `203.4 crore with financial assistance under JNNURM scheme (80 per cent Central government funding), the recovery of operation and maintenance cost is one among the reforms mandated.

Under phase-I of the JNNURM, two projects, namely the CSSUAP and drinking water supply augmentation from Dowleswaram to Yanam are under implementation. The cost of implementation of drinking water supply project is `48 crore, of which, the Central assistance is Rs 32 crore and the remaining `18 crore has to be met by  UT administration.

Under CSSUAP, three sewage treatment plants (STP) is being constructed at Karuvadikuppam,  Dubrayanpet and  Kanagaeri with a capacity of 17 million litres per day (MLD) each, PWD chief engineer S Manohar said. Along with the existing 15 MLD plant at Karuvadikuppam and 2.5 MLD at Dubrayanpet, the total capacity of sewage treatment will go up to 68.5 MLD. The projects are expected to be completed by the middle of next year, he added.

The sewerage charges proposed for domestic and residential building in five different slabs with monthly tariffs ranges from `15 to `35 per connection and deposit of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000. For apartments, the monthly tariff is `35 for each unit and they have to give Rs 10,000 as deposit. For commercial buildings, the monthly tariff ranges from `300 per connection to Rs 1,000 per connection and deposit of Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000.

Similarly, the revision of domestic water tariff has also been proposed for recovering the operation and maintenance cost, said Meena. The proposal is awaiting cabinet approval, she said.