PIMPRI: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has claimed that after installation of automatic water meters in Ganesh Nagar area at Bopkhel, it is saving 2 lakh litres of water per day.

To address the issue of irregular, uneven and insufficient water supply, PMC initiated the 24x7 water supply project in the city, which was approved in February 2018. The total cost of the project is Rs 2,550 crore. Out of the total amount, the civic body raised Rs 200 crore through bonds. It also levied water charges for the project in 2018, which is still continuing. However, the project work kicked off only in December 2019. The work was assigned to L&T and Jain Irrigation. 

The PMC divided the city into 328 District Metering Areas (DMA) to check the water supply and distribution to particular areas and inflow and outflow of water through meters. In July 2019, the PMC appointed L&T which completed the work of installation of water meters in one DMA named Ganesh Nagar at Bopkhel. In this DMA, the corporation installed 5,600 water meters (residential plus commercial establishments) and has been monitoring the system since then.

According to the PMC report, the number of water supply related complaints reduced and water supply timing increased from half-an-hour to one-and-half hours. The PMC is saving 2 lakh litres of water per day. Earlier, the corporation was supplying 10 lakh litres of water per day. Now, it has reduced to 7.80 lakh litres. Unaccounted-for water (UFW) has reduced from 80 per cent to 22 per cent. UFW includes water theft, unidentified water connections, leakages etc. Residents are getting sufficient and regular water supply.

Speaking to Sakal Times, PMC Superintendent Engineer Nandkumar Jagtap said, “It is the first DMA which we have completed and the result is overwhelming. Now, we are supplying regular and enough water to Ganesh Nagar residents with constant pressure. Now, we are going to complete another four to five DMAs in next two months. In this DMA, we will also closely monitor the system.”