Despite a cap on water tanker prices by the district administration in Bengaluru, water tanker loads of 12,000 litres continue to cost over ₹2,000. The cap has had little effect on water tanker prices on the ground and enforcement has been almost nil, complain residents.
Nayaz Khan, a resident of Varthur, said when asked about charging more than the price cap, water tanker dealers complained that what the government had fixed was unviable and they could supply water at only higher rates.
“We are at the mercy of tanker dealers for water and have to buy water at whatever rates they quote. The government has announced that they will provide water for free in our areas. It hasn’t reached us,” he said.
Mr. Khan said a tractor load of 4,000 litres of water cost ₹800 to ₹1,000. The district administration has not issued specific rates for 4,000 litre loads, but has capped 6,000 litre loads at ₹750.
Meanwhile, the cost of 12,000 litre tanker load used by most apartments are being sold in the range of ₹2,000 and ₹2,500, even as the government has capped it at ₹1,200.
“There has been no correction in water tanker prices post the cap,” said Rajesh H., a resident of an apartment community off Sarjapura Road.
Another resident of Whitefield said that water tanker suppliers are not only charging the price they want, but are also insisting that apartment communities enter into a contract of at least six months to get water now. “The price cap has been on paper and there is no way to enforce that. If one wants water, one has to accept the terms put forth by tanker suppliers and that is the ground reality,” he said.
Tanker dealers reject cap
Most of the water tanker dealers in the city have rejected the price cap put by the district administration, even as many argue the price cap was dead on arrival and did not apply to them at all.
“The district administration has put a price cap for tanker loads where the distance between the source of water and the destination is less than 10 km. But most of us routinely go beyond 15 km and in some cases even beyond 20 km one way to fetch water. So the price cap does not even apply to us,” said Ramesh Reddy, a water tanker dealer in Marathahalli.
The Mahadevapura chapter of the Bengaluru East Water Tankers’ Association, with nearly 300 water tankers attached to it, held a meeting and came out with their own price card.
“For every 1,000 litres, we have decided to charge ₹125 if the distance between the source and the destination is below two km, ₹150 if the distance is between two and five km, and go on adding ₹25 for every two-and-a-half additional km,” said R.V.N. Babu, president of the association.
As per this, the cost of 12,000 litres of water if sourced from 12 km away, which Mr. Babu said was very common, is ₹2,400.
‘Divorced from ground reality’
When asked whether this was not a violation of the price cap imposed by the district administration, Mr. Babu said the basis for that was “unscientific” and “divorced from ground reality”.
“Probably they have only surveyed areas where one gets water at 200 feet. Here in our areas we have to dig more than 1,500 feet, which increases both capital and operational expenditure. Moreover these are far off from where our customers stay,” he said, adding the association was being reasonable and imposing a price card on their members, not allowing them to exploit the situation.
BWSSB chairman V. Ramprasath Manohar said that the board will soon paste stickers of the prices fixed by the district administration on water tankers to create awareness among the public. “It is a new system and will take some time for both the people and the tanker suppliers to get used to it,” he said.
