BMC to have its own fleet of tankers

The strike was called off on February 14 after the intervention of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Guardian Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha.

During the strike, work on several infrastructure projects, including that of the Coastal Road, came to a standstill as works like tunnelling, paver washing and concretising require water which is supplied to the sites by tankers.
Besides, road concretisation works in the city and civic works related to the Mumbai Beautification Project (MBP) were also affected.

P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner (projects), said the BMC is planning to purchase 300-400 water tankers initially and, in the future, plans to have its own fleet of 500 tankers in Mumbai.

“During the third day of the strike, civil works related to our infrastructure projects started getting affected. Therefore, the BMC has now come to a decision to have its own fleet of water tankers. The municipal commissioner has instructed us to chalk out a plan to purchase 300-400 tankers in the first phase. These tankers will be owned and operated by the BMC and in the near future we will augment the fleet to 500,” Velrasu said at a Town Hall session organised by The Indian Express.

He said currently the BMC maintains a fleet of 70 water tankers, which is inadequate considering Mumbai’s size, which is divided into 24 municipal wards. “Having our own tankers will allow us to become self-sustainable and provide water in case of an emergency. During pipeline repair work or if there is a pipeline burst, we request people to store water but stored water doesn’t last more than two days. Having our own tankers will bring an end to these situations and will allow the BMC to do damage control to some extent in such situations,” he said.

One of the several regulations laid down by the CGWA is that operators of water tankers need to own a 2,000 sqft land for withdrawing ground water and from each land parcel, not more than five different tankers can withdraw water annually.

The CGWA guidelines also state that the supplied water needs to be used for potable purpose only and the tankers should have GPS tracking devices.
Ankur Sharma, spokesperson for the MWTA, said that purchasing own tankers will increase the BMC’s financial burden.

“For private tankers, the BMC pays between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 for a tanker, including expenses of driver and cleaner, every month. For existing BMC-owned tankers, they pay Rs 50,000 to a driver and Rs 25,000 to a cleaner. Also, tankers are not required on a daily basis, so buying so many vehicles at one go will require more fuel and increase maintenance cost as well,” Sharma told The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, Harshita Narwekar, a former BJP corporator, said, “It’s a welcome move by the BMC and will be beneficial during a crisis.”