BENGALURU: After a one-year delay, a one-stop data centre which will allow real-time monitoring of the entire water supply network of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) across the city is nearing completion.
Trial runs on the project, billed as Management Improvement Systems II (MIS-II) are now being carried out at ‘Shimsha Bhavan’ located on 48th Cross, 8th Block, Jayanagar.
“After stringent checks, the BWSSB was awarded a Radio Frequency (RF) licence by the Ministry of Communications last year to proceed with its project,” said S Krishnappa, Chief Engineer (CE), Cauvery division. The initial objective of the project is to strictly monitor water transmission and distribution across the city from the centralised location and minimise water losses. “As the project evolves, we will put in place systems that can control the entire water distribution from one centre,” he said.
The `8-crore IT project, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will be fully operational within three months, Krishnappa said.
“All the water treatment plants and pumping stations associated with the Cauvery IV Stage, Phases 1 & 2 at T K Halli, Harohalli and Tataguni, the Netkal Balancing Reservoir, and the six Ground Level Reservoirs across the city are being linked so that real-time data can be instantly gathered from this office,” he said. The project is run on a web-based technology, which ensures that those involved in monitoring work can keep track of it through intranet or internet with conditional access to the site.
The monitoring office, known as the Centralised Scada Monitoring and Control Centre (CSMC), makes use of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, he said. This system is used world over for gathering and analysing data in various fields.
“Presently, BWSSB has localised SCADA centres at Yelahanka, Jayanagar and at a few Sewage Treatment Plants. But it is the first time everything will be integrated together,” the official said. Japanese firm Yoko Gawa was awarded the contract of putting all infrastructure in place for the project.
The Unaccounted For Water project carried out in Bangalore South, West and Central to bring down water loss, which is as high as 48 per cent, will also be monitored through this system.
Licence issues
The project was supposed to have become functional by early 2014, another source said. “After the 2G scam, the Centre has become very cautious about awarding licences to anyone. We had to provide many documents and answer so many questions for months before we were provided bandwidth by the Communications Ministry. That delayed everything by a year,” he said.
The first phase of the project will focus on water management, but later on, sewage monitoring will also be brought under its fold, Krishnappa said.
MIS-I aimed at providing kiosks across the City to pay water bills but that was shelved after BangaloreOne centres were set up.