Following complaints about difficulty in booking water tankers online, Chennai Metrowater plans to add more payment gateways in a week to stabilise its Dial for Water 2.0 service.
The new service was launched nearly a month ago to prevent duplication of booking from same premises and reduce waiting time for delivery. However, there are complaints about challenges in booking a tanker load through the service.
K. Sreedhar, a resident of Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, said he found it difficult to book a tanker. “I receive messages that payment queue is full and within a few minutes, the booking slots for 9,000 l and 12,000 l gets filled up.”
For some residents who get through booking, making payment proves to be a challenge.
Though the amount for the water tanker gets debited, the transaction cannot be completed, said residents.
V. S. Jayaraman, a resident of T.Nagar, said the water agency could allow booking for next few available dates instead of the second day from the day of booking to ease the situation. People would have more choice to book and need not scramble for slots.
Admitting that there were payment related issues, officials of the Metrowater said more payment aggregators are being identified to provide better options and reduce payment failures. “We are getting 2,000 bookings daily through the service and deliver in two days. Such complaints were common in areas 6, 8,9,10 and 13 with less piped water supply,” said an official.
As street supply is prioritised over paid tanker water supply, there is a surge in demand for Dial For Water service from these areas and measures are being taken to improve it. Of the 12,500 trips operated daily, nearly 10,000 trips cater to street supply. While 450 million litres a day is supplied through pipeline, nearly 75 mld is given through tankers.
Free supply first
“We have designed the online booking system based on the existing capacity and maximum number of tanker trips already being made. The water agency’s mandate is to provide free water supply in the city and those made on payment was an add-on service,” the official added.
Metrowater also delivered tankers to consumers who booked in the old system according to seniority, provided there was no booking in the new service.
