Residents who have not regularised their water connection in the newly added areas of the city will have their supply cut off by June.
Over 80,000 buildings in the new areas risk losing water supply as the owners have not paid the pro rata charges and are yet to install water meters to make the connections legal.
According to sources in the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the civic body is preparing an action plan to conduct inspections to identify the buildings drawing water without regularising the connections. According to estimates, BWSSB is supplying over 300 MLD of water to these areas, including over 170 MLD to buildings without regular connections. This causes a monthly loss of `4 crore to BWSSB, which is planning to terminate the connections immediately after the monsoons set in around the first week of June.
BWSSB chief engineer T Venkatraju said many people who have not regularised their connections and are drawing water free of charge don’t know its value and are wasting it. “Because of this, people who have paid the pro rata charges and regularised their connections are not receiving adequate supply of water.”
THE ISSUE
BWSSB had granted over 1.5 lakh water connections to buildings in the newly-added areas of the city under the Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project. Though more than one-and-a-half years have passed since the civic body started supplying water to these areas, only 60,000 building owners have regularised their connections.