The city might very soon get rid of the manual water meter reading system if the pilot project that is about to be implemented by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to test automatic water meter reading system gives the desired results.
This is the first project of this kind to be implemented in the state.
The BWSSB Engineer in Chief T Venkatraju said, “The project will be implemented under the ‘service bench mark’ programme of the central government. The central government will be contributing `2.98 crore to this pilot project that is expected to cost `3.5 crore.’’ According to Venkatraju the BWSSB had earlier invited tenders from companies to implement the project twice and no one came forward to participate in the tender. However this time two private companies have come forward to implement the projects and have participated in the tender meetings. The BWSSB is likely to choose one of them and implement the project at the earliest.
The automatic water meter reading system will be installed in around 1,000 commercial water connections in any particular area and the readings recorded in the automatic system will be cross checked with the manual readings to check the accuracy of the automatic system.
After analysing the accuracy and other aspects of the automatic meter reading system, the BWSSB Board will take a decision on installing the system in the rest of the areas of the city.