HYDERABAD: Come summer and Hyderabad turns into a parched city. Usually, there is a huge demand for water tankers, especially in the months of March, April and May. But owing to the lockdown, this summer, a majority of the water tankers remain stationed at the filling stations of the HMWS&SB.
Since commercial establishments like hotels, bars, restaurants, shopping malls, multiplexes, function halls and cinema theatres are closed, the demand for water tankers has fallen drastically, say officials. Domestic consumers on the other hand say they are not facing any water shortage this season.
A common sight in summer is hundreds of water tankers making multiple trips in Greater Hyderabad. But this April, demand for tankers went down by 40 per cent as compared to April, 2019. The demand is likely to go down by 50 per cent this May as the lockdown has been extended.
As against the 77,247 tanker trips made during March, 2019, this March, tankers made only 70,279 trips, a fall of 6,968 trips. It may be recalled that the lockdown came into force on March 25. In April, there was a huge fall in trips by about 30,872. As against the 88,237 tanker trips made in April, 2019, the trips made by water tankers in April, 2020 was 57,365.
In May, 2019, a whopping 1.10 lakh trips were made by water tankers. Water Board officials told Express that there is sufficient water in the reservoirs. Besides, power supply has been smooth as well, which is crucial for pumping water from far-off reservoirs, Krishna (Akkampally) and Godavari (Yellampally). Srinivas, a tanker owner, says that last year he used to make eight trips a day. But now he barely makes one.
6 times increase in foodgrains ferried by SCR
Hyderabad: The South Central Railway (SCR) has registered a substantial increase in loading of foodgrains, about six times more, in April 2020, as compared to April, 2019. It recorded a 522 per cent incremental loading during this period. In order to ensure that essential farm produce transport is not impacted due to the lockdown, the South Central Railway has chalked out plans for effective utilisation of freight and parcel trains. It transported 12.3 lakh tonnes of foodgrains in April, 2020 which is more than six times the load transported in April, 2019. The goods were transported to various locations of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal