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.