Fixing 5K smart water meters to cost around Rs 13 cr?

Aurangabad, Oct 16:

If the sources are to be believed, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will soon be launching a survey to detect illegal commercial water connections in the city. As reported earlier, the Aurangabad Smart City Development

Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) has made a provision of Rs 13 crore to fix 5,000 water meters on commercial connections in the city under the first phase. However, as per the civic record, the strength of commercial water connections in the city is 2,600.

The proposal of fixing water meters on 5,000 commercial connections was approved in the recently held meeting of

ASCDCL's board of directors (BoDs). The tender in this regard will be floated soon.

ASCDCL's project manager Imran Khan said," The state-of-the-art ultrasonic smart water meters will be installed in the first phase. It will enable the attendant to record the meter reading clearly. The AMC has sanctioned water connections of various sizes and they vary from 0.75 inches to eight inches. The cost of one meter for a big size connection could be expensive or over Rs 1 lakh."

Khan further said, " The AMC administration will decide on recovering the cost of meter through fixing instalments from the commercial connection-holders. The AMC has informed us that there are 2,600 commercial connections in the city. The figure would increase after the survey."