HYDERABAD: In an attempt to increase its revenues, the HMWS&SB has decided to fix AMR ultrasonic meters for all high consumption and non-domestic consumers. According to the officials of the Water Board, which will start fixing 2,000 automatic meter reading (AMR) ultrasonic meters from the first week of February, the new meters will help in securing accurate readings and thereby boosting the revenues.
The mechanical meters that are currently in use do not provide accurate reading and they can also be tampered with. By installing these state-of-the-art meters, physical visits to the premises of consumers to take the reading can be avoided. The responsibility of maintaining these meters will be entrusted to private agencies for a five-year period.
The officials informed that a total of 2,150 AMR meters (all diameters) are fixed for non-domestic Consumer Account Numbers (CANs), of which 660 are fixed for high-value CANs (above 40mm dia) and monthly demand generation is around Rs 28 crore. As per the data, even though there are 47,000 non-domestic CANs of all sizes, a majority of them are of small diameter.