GVMC goes hi-tech to track water tankers

Spending about Rs.10 crore a year on water supply by tankers, GVMC needs to ensure that they reach the specified points on time and the needs of residents are met and more importantly, there is no pilferage.

Using technology, it has decided to fix Global Positioning System (GPS) devices to the private tankers that it hires to supply water. GVMC hires 70 tankers that make between 400 and 450 trips a day to various parts of the city. The lion’s share goes to Gajuwaka area where the commissioning of 85 MLD treatment plant near Aanampudi has been inordinately delayed.

It necessitated running by 20 tankers that make about 200 trips supplying 1 MLD water, half the quantity supplied by tankers in the city. While Madurawada area accounts for another 50 trips, 100 trips are made to Pendurti and another 50 to the central part of the city covering zones II, III and IV.

Monitoring all the trips is physically impossible. The number of trips are inflated and the corporation ends up paying more without utilising services and people end up without adequate water, says Municipal Commissioner M.V. Satyanarayana. With GPS devices fixed to the 20 tankers that serve Gajuwaka area, the details are available at the click of a mouse. A total of 80 devices will be fixed by the middle of the month.

Rent for devices

The total rent for the devices for a year is Rs. 4 lakh, not a significant amount compared to the gains. For transporting 2 mld water, GVMC spends Rs.40,000 on tankers and the water costs Rs.40,000.

Apart from the tanker contractor and the driver, representatives of resident welfare associations are involved who inform by phone if there is any problem, says Superintendent Engineer V. Chandraiah. It is important to detect if there is any fraud/pilferage, he says.

GPS enables us to check details even later if there is any suspicious movement. For any stop more than four minutes is recorded and the data will be available for a year enabling us to check later, he says.

The GPS devices are hired at a cost of Rs.4 lakh and data is recorded and can be checked at any point of time.