Hyderabad: Following the severe water crisis, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has decided to deploy its new fleet of 170 mini water tankers to ensure faster delivery of water to consumers. Each tanker will have a capacity of 2,500 liters.
As of now, the water board delivers supply to consumers through tankers of various capacities, including 5,000 liters, 10,000 liters, and 25,000 liters. With its existing 540 registered tankers, the board added another 300 private tankers to meet the city’s drinking water demand. The number will touch 100 after the 170 tankers are added to the fleet.
On April 13, municipal administration principal secretary M. Dana Kishore said, “These mini tankers can easily pass through congested and narrow roads.”
“Of the 170, 100 mini tankers will be hired from truck owners in the city. Keeping in view of the hot summer, the government has decided to run additional tankers,” he added.
He further said the board was making arrangements to draw another 20 million gallons of water from the Osman Sagar and Himaryatsagar reservoirs, supplementing the existing 20 mgd (million gallons per day) supply.
He asked HMWSSB MD C Sudarshan Reddy to look for suitable land to establish mini water plants at Mir Alam and Asif Nagar filter beds to meet the demand.
The bookings had slowed down a bit in the last few days because of the cooling weather, Kishore said, adding that there were 6,000 tanker bookings per day, which has now been reduced to only 1,000.
According to the officials, out of 13 lakh consumers, only 30,000 are booking tankers in the city.
