Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board HMWSSB

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Water board pulls up its socks

Following the latest spells of rain and the threat of water contamination in the City, the HMWS&SB has pulled its socks up in an effort to curb the spread of water-borne diseases. The latest drive launched by the Water Board is the training programme conducted for chlorine plant operators.

Conducted jointly by the QAT and the manufacturers of the chlorination plants viz, M/s Industrial Devices, M/s METITO & M/s TOSCHON JESCHO on November 5, 6 and 7, 2012 for educating the operators in proper operation of chlorination plants. The training includes attending to sudden leakages of chlorine gas and necessary precautionary measures to be adopted during emergencies.

The three-day training programme is being conducted at Miralam Filter beds, Asif Nagar filter beds and Sainikpuri reservoir premises for all the chlorine plant operators of O&M division No I to XVII. Managing director J Syamala Rao visited the Patancheru division office, Singur Dam and Peddapur Filter Beds as part of inspection.

D Sridhar Babu, general manager (Engg), O&M division No XVII along with QAT staff attended the programme.

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Krishna water project phase III bids finalised

HYDERABAD, NOV. 22:
Bids of infrastructure development companies—KCPL, SMC, Indian Hume Pipe, MEIL, Vishwa, KCCL and BRCCPL, were among several others of the 25 participants chosen for development of the Rs 1670-crore Krishna phase III drinking water project.

The project will be executed in packages to be awarded to various participants in the bid. The bidders included IVRCL, Indian Hume Pipe Company, Ramky Infrastructure, Bhooratnam Construction Company, Sai Sudheer Infrastructure, MEIL among others.

The project seeks to bring 90 million gallons per day of additional water to Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The project has been funded with the loan assistance of Rs 1,500 crore from Hudco and Rs 170 crore from the State Government.

The water project involves laying up of pipeline over the 110 km stretch from Kondapur in Nalgonda district to Sahebnagar in Rangareddy district of the State. It also involves construction of raw water intake facility, pumping equipment at several locations and a balancing reservoir.

E-PROCUREMENT PLATFORM

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board had invited the bids through the e-procurement platform in September. After couple of extensions it has come up for finalisation. These were evaluated by a technical committee and price bids were opened.

With the completion of this project, the city will get 16.5 tmc of water from Krishna river. Thus far through two phases, the city gets 11 tmc of drinking water. The third phase will add 5.5 tmc to the overall drinking water requirement in the growing metropolitan region.

The Government is also planning to bring water from Godavari river.

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Krishna Phase-III : Water Board shortlists bidders

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) on Thursday opened both technical and financial bids for taking up the Krishna Phase-III project and short-listed firms which filed lowest bid amounts. The Water Board had floated tenders to take up works for the proposed drinking water supply project under 10 packages. For package-I , two firms filed tenders, but KCCL-SMCIHP (joint venture) quoted lowest amount, while the tender evaluation is still under process for package-II .

For package-III M/s BRCCPL-TAINFRA-RVR (JV) quoted lowest bids and for package-IV M/s IHPVISHWA (JV) quoted lowest bids. For package-V all firms were disqualified and the Water Board decided to go for re-tender . For package-VI M/s MEIL-SMC-SNT (JV), package-VII M/s SSCCMR , VIII M/s MEL-KBL , package-IX and package-X M/s MEL-KCCL (JV) filed lowest bids.

"We have sent the shortlisted bids to the municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department for final approval. Once, the government gives the green signal, works will be taken up after signing the necessary agreements with the firms,"a senior HMWS&SB official told TOI. The Water Board will spend Rs 1,670 crore for the drinking water project.

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Sewerage network remains a mirage

About 340 million gallons of drinking water a day is pumped into the city’s distribution system. Hundreds of crores of rupees is being spent for Krishna water phase three by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWSSB).

Although drinking water supply needs to get the highest priority, building a modern sewerage network is lagging far behind, so are the treatment plants and even the prospects of recycling water. The board admits to 70 per cent sewage network only in the core city (erstwhile MCH) and about 40 per cent in the suburbs. It currently has the capacity to treat just about 50 per cent of the sewage outflow with the help of three Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs). Recycling of sewage is at the proposal stage even if policy-makers know a major part of people’s needs can be met through it.

Sewage network was first developed in 1931 by M. Visvesvaraya for a population of 54 sq.km and a population of five lakh and major remodelling was done in the early 90s in the core city. The core city sewerage network totalling to 3,500 km needs a major overhaul while the suburbs either have zero or an incomplete network.

Most household sewers are either linked to storm water drains or let out into the existing water bodies nearby. “Storm water drains are supposed to be dry except during the rains but the flow is perennial, indicating the illegal link of sewers because of which excess rainwater does not drain away easily,” points out a senior municipal official.

“Poor sewerage has led to groundwater contamination, stagnant water, mosquito-breeding and pollution of Musi river with drains (sewer & storm) disgorging their contents,” avers another official.

The continuing see-saw battle with GHMC in taking over sewer and water connections handled by erstwhile municipalities is another reason for lack of urgency in taking up any works. About 100 colonies did manage to take up pipelines where the municipal corporation offered to fund 70 per cent.

But the execution of the master plan for suburbs or for the core is painfully slow due to funds crunch with precedence given to sudden exigencies or water supply works. Now, there is a growing feeling among senior officials that the government should help HMWSSB to build a proper underground sewerage system for better hygiene and sanitation.

GHMC and HMDA should also share part of their revenue as mandated, they maintain. “Every year the GHMC can easily allocate Rs.100 crore – Rs.200 crore to help take up or improve the sewer system in phases. It can change the civic scene for the better instead of taking up community halls’ construction or cement roads spending crores of rupees, which public representatives clamour for,” they argue.

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HMWS&SB organises consumers meet

As part of maintaining better consumer relations, the HMWS&SB, organised a consumers meet at Feelkhana area under the limits of Gowliguda section on Monday. A total of 87 complaints about billing, regularisation of illegal connections were received. Krishna Mothkur, GM (E) and DyGM(E) and Managers (E) of O&M Div IV were present.

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Public sector units among big water bill defaulters

HYDERABAD: Reeling under severe water crisis, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has now found their coffers getting emptied, with organisations like University of Hyderabad, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and the National Police Academy among others not paying dues to the tune of several crores.

The water board, after zooming in on one lakh defaulters in Greater Hyderabad and peripheral circles, will launch another survey to find out about more such defaulters existing in the city.

While the University of Hyderabad owes them Rs 3.05 crore, the Nuclear Fuel Complex, Ordnance Factory and the National Police Academy have defaulted on dues of more than one crore over the past four years.

In a crackdown on such defaulters, authorities will soon attach movable properties of those whose arrears are more than Rs one lakh, under the Andhra Pradesh Revenue Recovery Act 1864.

"The water board has taken the decision of attaching the movable assets as the arrears of crores of rupees have not been paid for years," HMWS&SB managing director J Syamala Rao told TOI. HMWS&SB has already appointed a retired deputy collector (revenue) to implement the RR Act against the defaulters. The water board will also upload the names of the defaulters and their dues on the official portal www.hyderabadwater.gov.in, in a day or two, Rao said.

Starting January, a fresh two-month survey by an independent agency will begin to find out details of more defaulters, officials said. "For the first time, the water board will take up an initiative on illegal water connections," Rao said.

The water board also conducts surprise checks through its vigilance wing to identify illegal water connections. Separate teams will carry out door-to-door surveys in all 17 operations and maintenance (O&M) divisions and detect the illegal connections.

Initially, the survey will focus on single water connection and later, multiple connection defaulters will also be found out, Rao said.

For the moment, the water board has also decided to give an opportunity to customers with illegal connections to clear their dues and get clearance from authorities. "We will regularise the illegal water connections under voluntary disclosure scheme (VDS) officially," said Rao. During the survey, if the water board finds on its own illegal water connections, customers will have to pay double connection charges with three years penalty and arrears if any, to the water board.

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Contingency plan for city’s water supply

In the wake of depleting water levels in the reservoirs of Singur, Manjira, Osmansagar, Himyatsagar and Akkampally (Krishna) _ major sources of drinking water to the city _ minister for municipal administration and urban development M Maheedhar Reddy has held a review meeting to discuss a contingency plan for drinking water supply during the coming summer.

The minister held issue-based discussions with Hyderabad Metro Water Supply & Sewerage Board managing director J Syamala Rao and other officials at the board’s office at Khairatabad on Saturday in the presence principal secretary (MAUD) Sam Bob.

Apart from the contingency plan for drinking water supply during coming summer, the meeting also discussed the reduction in unaccounted for water (UFW) losses, ways and means to improve revenues, regularisation of illegal water /sewerage connections, need to amend and strengthen the HMWSSB Act,1989 particularly relating to levy of penalties for unauthorised connections and on defaulters.

They also discussed the progress of work on the Godavari Drinking Water Supply Phase-I and called for timely completion of the project and assured necessary help from the state government.

Syamala Rao made a PowerPoint presentation and explained the various issues pertaining to HMWS&SB like water supply position, need for emergency pumping during summer, etc.

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Malkajgiri water project crosses major hurdle

A high-level committee has cleared the detailed project report (DPR) for the proposed World Bank-funded Rs 300 crore drinking water supply project for Malkajgiri.

A Germany-based firm Lahmeyer has submitted the DPR to the Andhra Pradesh Municipal Development Project (APMDP) of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) officials last week. The steering committee, headed by secretary, MA&UD, Adhar Sinha, approved the DPR and sent it to the government for administrative sanction.

"A few months ago, Lahmeyer had done a survey on water supply status in Malkajgiri. The World Bank will fund the Rs 300 crore drinking water project. The project aims to supply 24/7 water to Malkajigiri circle. The APMDP will implement the water supply project," secretary, MA&UD, Adhar Sinha told TOI.

The government has sent the DPR to the World Bank for its nod for financial help. "Once the World Bank gives its nod, the government will issue a GO, according administrative sanction. It will take at least six months for the project to be grounded. Once the government gives administrative sanction, then global tenders will be floated. The project will be started by 2013-end. The project might be completed by 2016," the official said.

However, Adhar Sinha clarified that the proposed drinking water project was linked to the Godavari project. Also, the Godavari pipeline would be passing through Malkagiri area. "Once the Godavari drinking water project is commissioned, it will be easy for us to implement the proposed drinking water supply scheme to Malkajgiri," the official said.

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Water board’s shortage of funds delays project

HYDERABAD: With contractors stopping the laying of sewer pipelines in Old City since August over non-payment of their bills there is no hope that the project will meet its deadline which is the end of this month.

The shortage of funds with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board is expected to delay the project, which has been sanctioned under the JNNURM scheme, by at least six more months. That also means that the restoration of roads which have been dug up for laying the sewer lines will remain unrepaired until the project is finished.

The Rs 400-crore "rehabilitation and strengthening of sewerage system in Old City started in 2008 under the JNNURM scheme. The entire work has been divided into two zones. Each zone has further been divided into three phases with each phase assigned to one company on contract. The sewerage master plan has been prepared to meet the population demand up to 2021 for an area of 351.63 sq km. As part of the master plan, works like rehabilitation, strengthening and improvement of sewerage system in Old City has been planned. According to the original timeline, the project should be completed by this year end but the contractors and officials of the HMWSSB say that they need an extension.

An official of the firm executing the project said that they had completed around 80% of the work assigned to them but received payment for only 40% of the work. "We are yet to prepare our September bills. This will only add up to the dues. We have not been receiving regular payment for more than a year now. So we have stopped work since August," he said adding that at least a four-month extension was required to complete the pending work.

In Zone 1 though works have nearly been completed in phase one and three, works have slowed in phase two (Charminar area) as permissions could not be obtained on time. Surprisingly, the status report available on JNNURM's website says that 99% of the work in zone 1 is complete though officials of HMWS&SB say that more than one percent of the work is pending. In Zone 2, which began a year after zone 1 began has progressed at a very slow pace but the status report says that 90 percent of the work is complete. In all three phases, contractors have complained of delay in payments. The total cost utilization in zone 1 amounts to 37% of approved cost while 61% of the approved cost was utilized in zone two.

A senior official of HMSWWB admitted that shortage of funds was indeed a problem but said that they are certain of getting an extension for the project.

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Huge shortfall likely in summer water supply

Hyderabad: The Water Board will start pumping water from the ‘dead’ storage levels of Osmansagar and Himayat-sagar from January end.

Similarly, the pumping from Manjira and Singur will commence from April. Officials have started the summer action plan. They said the duration of water supply will be reduced in summer even in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, as there will be a shortage of nearly 50 million gallons of water per day. The Board is inviting tenders to set up motors in Osmansagar and Himayat-sagar.

About 40 MGD water is being supplied from the two water bodies to the city.

“The water in Osman-sagar and Himayatsagar will not last long. The two reservoirs will go dry much before the peak of summer and we plan to adjust the 40 MGD shortfall by diverting Krishna water to areas that are getting supply from the two water bodies now,” said a senior official.

As a result, water supply is likely to be curtailed to a large number of areas right from mid February. Though officials said only the duration of water supply will be reduced, sources said the areas getting water supply on alternate days now will be given water once in three or four days, and those getting water supply once in three, four or even five days, will have to wait for a week or more for an hour’s supply in April and May.

Greater Hyderabad requires 21 TMC of water. To continue the present daily supply of 340 MGD up to next monsoon, there should be at least 1.5 TMC each in the two reservoirs. Currently, Osmansagar has 0.727 TMC water and Hima-yatsagar has 0.637 TMC.

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Water Board to shame defaulters

HYDERABAD: After shaming domestic consumers by posting their dues online, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has now decided to give the same treatment to bulk consumers.

The Water Board has short-listed names of defaulters whose arrears exceed Rs one crore to seize their movable assets under the Andhra Pradesh Revenue Recovery (RR) Act.

The HMWS&SB has already uploaded names of 576 defaulters whose arrears were over Rs one lakh. Water Board executive director G Panda Das told TOI,

"Now, defaulters have started responding after their names appeared on our website. Now, we have decided to upload names of bulk consumers who have arrears over Rs one crore on our website this week." As per official records, 15 gram panchayats under the panchayat raj department are the top defaulters with arrears to the tune of Rs 72.46 crore.

The South Central Railway (SCR) might also figure in the ignominious list as the railway control room has to pay Rs 1.80 crore, while the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, has to clear Rs 80.61 lakh water dues, the official said.

Even some public sector units (PSUs) might figure in the list as ECIL has dues worth Rs 1.29 crore, Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), Jeedimetla, Rs 1.23 crore, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Balanagar Rs 7.90 crore. The Andhra Pradesh Housing Board (APHB) has to clear around Rs 1.25 crore dues to the Water Board, the ED added. Regarding the RR Act, the HMWS&SB official said, "We need some clarity in implementation of the Act.

Defaulters may approach courts if we seize movable assets. According to the provisions in the RR Act, we can seize the assets of defaulters, but cannot sell them to recover our dues."

For this, the Water Board has sent an official communique to principal secretary, municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department, Sam Bob, to issue necessary orders to sell seized assets. "Once the government gives the nod, we will go ahead and seize movable assets. We will also train general managers on how to go about the RR Act," the official added.

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Malkajgiri parched: Study

DC

Eighty-five per cent of the nearly four lakh population in Malkajgiri depends on borewells, public water taps, tankers and 20-litre cans sold in retail market for drinking water.
Only 15 per cent of the total households in Malkajgiri municipal area have drinking water connections.

Spread over 16 sq km, Malkajgiri’s daily water requirement is 54 million litres as against the present supply of 22 million litres. Of the total water connections here, 15 per cent get drinking water supply once in eight days or more, another 35 per cent once a week, 37 per cent once in five days and 12.2 per cent once in two days. Only about two per cent of residents get daily supply of water.

The minimum distance the citizens with no water connection have to walk to fetch water in this municipal circle is 50 metres.

These facts came to light in a study conducted by a private agency appointed by the Water Board.

As part of the study, households were selected randomly and residents were asked what their priority was from amongst water, cleanliness, garbage lifting, roads or streetlights. The reply from over 99 per cent of the respondents was touching, “A pot of potable drinking water.”

Though several areas in Greater Hyderabad are hit hard by drinking water shortage, Malkajgiri is the worst affected. Water Board engineer-in-chief M. Satyanarayana confirmed that the drinking water pipeline distribution network in Malkajgiri is only about 30 per cent.

“A master plan has been prepared to lay main supply lines, reservoirs, pump houses and distribution network spread over the entire Malkajgiri municipality, with an aim to supply water 24x7 depending on availability. There will be abundant water once Krishna Phase-III and Godavari Phase-I are commissioned,” he said.

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Krishna project hits another roadblock

HYDERABAD: Krishna water supply drinking project phase-III has hit another bottleneck with three ministers in the Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet raising a red flag over the tender process and finalisation of successful bidders.

Reliable sources said one of the ministers has even lodged a complaint with governor ESL Narasimhan, while another minister wrote a letter to the finance department raising queries on finalising bids. Another city-based minister has directly sent a letter to the chief minister's office (CMO) questioning the procedure adopted by the Hyderabad Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) in finalising the bids.

Despite the bottlenecks, the government has finalised bids to take up the Rs 1,670-crore drinking water project, which aims to bring 90 million gallons per day (MGD) of additional quantity of water to Greater Hyderabad.

As per the procedure, the municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department has to send minutes of the tender selection committee to MA&UD minister Maheedhar Reddy for the green signal to sign memoranda of understanding with the successful bidders.

"We sent minutes to the MA&UD minister for final approval two days ago. We are expecting the necessary clearance within a day or two. By December-end, the government will sign MoU with the bidders," MA&UD principal secretary B Sam Bob said. Regarding ground works, the official stated they were yet to get information on when chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy would lay foundation stone for the drinking water project.

Meanwhile, the HMWS&SB has extended the deadline to file tenders for Package-V up to December 24 as no firm had filed tenders till the last date of December 17, a senior HMWS&SB projects official said. Under Package-V, the Water Board has floated tenders for construction of a water treatment plant (WTP) with 410 million litres per day (MLD) capacity for the proposed drinking water project, he said.

Despite the bottlenecks, the government has finalised bids to take up the Rs 1,670-crore drinking water project.

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Officials told to prevent water woes in summer

Rs 30 cr summer action plan fund to be released in Jan: Mayor

GHMC Mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain said on Thursday that the earmarked budget of Rs 30 crore for summer action plan would be released in January. He directed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and th eHyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) to work in co-ordination and ensure that public do not face drinking water crisis during summer.

Majid Hussain held a review meeting on summer action plan and issues relating to drinking water in his chambers on Thursday. GHMC Commissioner MT Krishna Babu and Managing Director, HMWS&SB, Shyamala Rao and other senior officials attended it. He asked the water board officials to hold regulator meetings at the division level by duly involving elected representatives and officials.

Krishna Babu stressed the need for co-ordination between both the utility departments regarding works taken up in the core areas of the city. The Commissioner took up the issue of drinking water supply to Rajiv Gruha Kalpa and JNNURM colonies (about 78,000 houses) to which Shyamala Rao responded that the department would take up the issue.

Of Rs 2000 crore worth works taken up under JNNURM scheme, 80 percent of the works were completed. However, around Rs 200 crore worth of bills were pending settlement, he added. Shyamala Rao pointed out that only 1.25 TMC of water from the Singur Project would be released for agriculture-related purposes in Medak district.

Seeking the co-operation of the civic body in repairs to borewells, the water board MD said that reduction in bulk supply of water during summer was on the cards.