Metrowater to fix meters at all commercial bldgs

Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater) has taken steps to provide water meters to measure the amount of water being used at all the commercial buildings in the city. Currently, only six per cent of the buildings in the metropolis has water meters.

Once the commercial establishments and industrial buildings are provided with the meters, the water manager would collect charges as per the usage. According to government data, only six per cent of the total buildings (more than 12 lakh) had water meters till the financial year 2018-19 and the Metrowater intends to cover at least 10 per cent buildings in 2019-20 year.

“Even though we are trying to provide water meters to all the buildings in the city, we have taken steps to mandate such meters in commercial and industrial buildings, to begin with. Once the commercial buildings are brought under the ‘pay and use’ system, residential buildings will also follow suit,” a Metrowater official said.

The official added that the tenders were floated, and service provider has been selected to provide water meters to commercial buildings.

Metrowater has been charging a minimum of Rs 40 to a maximum of Rs 110 per kilolitre of water based on the type and extent of the commercial buildings. According to the Greater Chennai Corporation data, there are more than three lakh buildings in the city that are paying property tax as per commercial rates.

However, the Metrowater official clarified that all the buildings, irrespective of commercial or residential usage, in T Nagar would be provided with water meters under Smart City Mission. Under the Mission, Metrowater would provide 24X7 water supply in T Nagar.

The declaration of service level standards by the Chennai Corporation says that the Metrowater is supplying only 85 litres of water per capita per day against the standard benchmark of 135 litres per capita per day.