PMC to start monthly recovery of water bills from 2026 once work on equitable water supply project is complete

Pune Municipal Corporation Commissioner Rajendra Bhosale said the equitable water supply project will be completed by December this year.

A total of 3.15 lakh water meters will be installed under the project along with laying pipelines of 1,800 km and 82 overhead water tanks, Bhosale said, adding that it aims to check water loss due to leakages and theft. (Express File Photo)

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has set a year-end deadline to complete its equitable water supply project and from 2026 it will begin recovering monthly water charges from property owners based on their consumption as reflected in meters installed across the city.

Rajendra Bhosale, Municipal Commissioner, said the PMC had undertaken equitable distribution of water across the city at a cost of Rs 2,048 crore. “We have completed 75 per cent of the project, worth Rs 1,471 crore, and will finish it by December,” he said.

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Of the 141 zones for water supply in the old area of the civic body, work on 62 zones have been completed so far, while a master plan is being prepared to extend the project in 34 merged villages under the civic jurisdiction.

The PMC has also submitted proposals for constructing new water treatment plants and distribution systems in the newly merged areas in its limits.

Under the equitable water supply project, the civic body has already constructed 66 of the 82 proposed overhead water tanks and 79 more will be ready for use by the end of this month.

Also, work is underway for laying 1,060 km of new water pipelines, of which 960 km has already been completed. Two lakh water meters will be installed by the end of the current financial year, 70 per cent of which is already complete, he said.

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Through water meters, the PMC has been recovering charges of Rs 125 crore on average over the last few years. It collected Rs 130.98 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 102.45 crore till January end for 2024-25. A total of 47,070 water meters have been installed so far and dues of up to Rs 727.96 crore have been calculated due to various technical errors in the system.

From the current financial year, the charges will be telescopic, meaning those who consume less will be charged at a lesser rate and likewise for higher consumption, in a bid to reduce wastage of water. Failure to pay monthly bills will also lead to penalty of 1 per cent per month. The civic body has been hiking water charges by 5 per cent every year as per a precondition for implementation of the project.

Civic activist Vivek Velankar said the PMC had started the project work in 2018 and was to complete it in 2022 but seven years later, the project work is still going on. “The scope of the project was reduced by 25 per cent, still the PMC had to seek extension to complete it. Now, the deadline is 2026,” he said.

Ajay Jadhav

Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read More

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