COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation owes Rs 140 crore to the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage board (TWAD), which supplies water to the city and suburbs under the Siruvani and Pillur scheme. About Rs 120 cr is owed for the Siruvani scheme and Rs 21 cr for water supplied under the Pillur scheme.

TWAD supplies 85 million litres per day (MLD) of Siruvani water, while 65 MLD comes from the Pillur water scheme. This takes care the needs of 14 lakh people residing in the city, who get 110 litres per capacity per day.

According to senior officials in TWAD, laxity in collecting water charges and delay by the corporation to pay the amount have resulted in such huge arrears. The official said the corporation has to pay the amount owed to TWAD as per the new water slab charges fixed by the government.

The revised rates would require residents to pay Rs 4.50 for the use of every thousand litres of water. However, the earlier council was unwilling to pay the higher charges fixed by the TWAD board, the official said.

The councillors argue that the system to bring Siruvani water is based on gravitation. Hence, operation and maintenance costs are lower. However, the operational and maintenance costs are higher in the Pillur scheme.

However, the official said that new rates have been fixed after taking into consideration all aspects of costing. Though the corporation pays the maintenance and operational charges, water charges are not paid, he said adding that despite paying the arrears there would still be an accumulation of Rs 7 cr arrears annually. He added that the corporation was pressing the government to hand over the Siruvani scheme.

A senior official in the corporation accepted the fact about the arrears. "However, we have started paying back the arrears. We pay nearly Rs 2 to Rs 3 cr annually for Siruvani water and Rs 10 cr for Pillur water," he said. Mayor R Venkatachalam refused to comment on the issue.