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.