Soon, a call centre only for your water woes

If you have a problem with dirty water in your taps or no water at all, you can soon call a 24-hour helpline where all your water-related woes will be addressed. Vaishnavi Vasudevan reports.

If you have a problem with dirty water in your taps or no water at all, you can soon call a 24-hour helpline where all your water-related woes will be addressed.

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In a first for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the 24-hour call centre service that will be up and running within six months will address all complaints related to water contamination, short supply, leakages or billing.

“This initiative is to improve our relationship with citizens and ensure better services. Through the complaints registered, we will be able to solve most water related issues in the city,” said AS Tawadia, deputy hydraulic engineer, BMC.

Currently, a resident has to approach the local ward office and submit a written complaint or register at 1916 or 9833 33 1916, the two BMC help lines to register complaints about civic issues.

“Experts who have worked in the field of water supply and distribution will attend to the calls,” said a senior civic official. Once a complaint is placed, it will be forwarded to the person concerned at the ward office’s water works department.

The initiative is part of the Water Distribution Improvement Programme (WDIP) that is introduced for equitable distribution and effective management of water supply in the city.

The tenders for the project worth Rs300 crore approximately, will be invited within a fortnight, wherein international companies will also participate in bidding. The project will initially begin from two wards – H-West (Bandra) and T-Ward (Mulund). It will help map water supply networks in the city through a digital-based Geographic Information System (GIS).