Yeleru Canal to be closed from March 1

Alternative arrangements made for water supply, says Commissioner

The Yeleru Canal that brings water to the city from the Yeleru reservoir and Godavari Lift Scheme will be closed from March 1 to 31.

Tenders were being finalised for works worth ₹ 5 crore to carry out repairs so as to improve its carrying efficiency by 10 % for the present and make it suitable to receive water once the Purushottapatnam lift scheme on the Godavari river was ready, Municipal Commissioner M. Hari Narayanan has said.

Alternative arrangements had been made for water supply and the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant had reserves that would last 50 to 52 days, he said.

Though the closure of the canal was proposed from February 15 it was postponed to enable the steel plant store more water and also derive the benefit of flow by gravity from the canal, he said.

Water tax

While the corporation realised 80 % of the collectible property tax getting ₹165 crore against demand of ₹ 208 crore for the current year, payment of water tax by citizens was lagging behind, the Commissioner said.

Against a total of ₹48 crore, the collection so far was only ₹.14 crore. The dues are more from household water connections.

Last year and before last year ₹33 crore and ₹.28 crore were pending.

Stating that the corporation was spending the highest amount on water supply with electricity bill alone coming to ₹.5 crore, Mr. Hari Narayanan appealed to the people to co-operate and pay the water tax. Supply was not cut to avoid any hardship to people, he said.

The tax was also reasonable and fixed compared to other municipal corporations, he said.

The D&O trade licence fee also should be paid promptly and only ₹.1.5 crore of ₹.5 crore had been realised so far. Compliance by shopkeepers improved last year but they should pay in time not giving room to any aggressive action by the corporation, he said.

Additional Commissioner (Finance) S.S. Varma and Superintendent Engineer (Water Supply) P. Ananda Rao were present.

Download app

The response to feedback on Swacch Bharat Survekshan has been very good and citizens co-operated, says Mr. Harinarayanan. The city recorded one of the highest feedbacks in the State.

But downloading “Swachhata” App to make civic complaints is also important for ranking.

So far only 16300 people have downloaded it. For a good rank at least 35000 should download it, he said appealing to do it.