OC not necessary for water connection: BWSSB
BENGALURU: Offering a huge relief for hundreds of house owners and apartments opting for new water and sanitary connection, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has recently decided to relax the rule on possession of a mandatory Occupancy Certificate for the building. The move will benefit hundreds of house owners who were unable to get new connections since December 2017 due to this condition in place.
The OC is a certificate issued by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) after it ascertains that the building has not flouted any construction rules, and it adheres to all specifications submitted. The Bellandur Development Forum (BDF) had been campaigning extensively for the removal of this rule.
BC Gangadhar, Chief Engineer, Maintenance, BWSSB, confirmed to TNIE that nearly 400 new water connections had been issued following the relaxation of this rule from May 1. “We are only asking the owners to submit an affidavit to us assuring us that they would apply for an OC certification. This is the only requirement along with the pro-rata charges (one-time non-refundable deposit for new connection) to be remitted to us,” he said. The Water Supply Board levies a penalty on such connections which work out to 50% of the monthly water bill in case of houses and 100% of the bill in case of commercial complexes, the CE added.
The certification needs to be possessed only by owners of houses running into 300 square metres or equipped with more than four kitchens apart from all commercial apartments. “The penalty being levied will be stopped whenever the OC is handed over to us,” Gangadhar said.
BWSSB chairman Tushar Girinath said that the stoppage of new water connections affected the revenue collected by the water supply board. “The payments made for new connections came to an end, and our pro-rata revenue showed a big dip for many months,” he said. Vishnu Prasad of BDF said that an acknowledgement from the BBMP that an application for OC was submitted to it was a condition introduced in March this year.