HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) is scaling up its operations to ensure uninterrupted supply during summer.
According to officials, the Board will be, before summer peaks, well set to handle up 13,000 water tanker deliveries per day, up from the 8,000 to 8,200 trips per day at present. As of Thursday, water was being supplied through 1,200 tankers operating from 90 filling stations and 150 plus filling points across the city.
Localities such as Kondapur, Hafeezpet, Banjara Hills, Madhapur, Kukatpally, Pragathi Nagar, Miyapur, Hitec City, Gachibowli and some others are experiencing the highest demand even as summer is yet to peak.
About 70% of the tankers are being deployed to these areas, HMWSSB managing director K Ashok Reddy told TNIE.
To ensure tanker water delivery within 24 hours during the summer, additional filling stations and filling points are being arranged, the Board MD said. He said that HMWSSB would mobilise additional tankers if required and strictly ensure supply of water within one day of tanker booking.
Between March 1 and 30, a total of 2.31 lakh water tanker trips were made. Of them 1.48 lakh were made through Metro Customer Care (MCC) booking, 48,000 through non MCC booking and 14,800 as free tanker supply, Ashok Reddy said.
Addressing concerns over misuse of water tankers, he said that stern warning has been issued to tanker operators engaging in malpractice. He stated that strict action will be taken against those diverting domestic water tankers for commercial purposes, including blacklisting to ensure fair distribution and prevent exploitation. The water tankers are being tracked through GPS to check their misuse. Action has been initiated against some operators found misusing the tanker for commercial gains.
The Water Board MD said that sufficient reserves are in place across all major drinking water supply projects. Except for the Singur, water levels in Nagarjunasagar, Sripada Yellampally (Godavari), Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs are comfortable compared to previous years. Incidentally, Singur dam is currently undergoing repairs. Despite this, officials confirmed that adequate water has been stored to meet the city’s needs until June.