15 Apr 2011: The water board has made it mandatory to have Customer Account Number (CAN) for everyone who wants to book water tankers. One must compulsory have a water or sewerage connection or should have at least registered for new connection. This measure is taken by the officials, as most of the hotels and function halls are relying on paid tankers without having to pay connection charges to the board.
The board is also planning for automation of filling stations, as a part of which Automatic Meter Readings (AMR’s) will be installed in 90 filling points at 55 locations. At present the reading is entered manually at 23 filling stations and smart card is used for drawl of water which is going to be extended to all the 55 stations in near future.
This smart card system is very successful as it provides all the information online, regarding the number of trips a tanker has made (paid and free), the money paid and balance in smart card. The Automatic Vehicle Tracking System (AVTS) helps to know in case of free fillings, if the tanker has served the right location or not. Tampering also can be avoided as the smart card helps to find out if the opening reading and closing reading are matching the number of trips made and if there is a difference. If there is no difference shown then only the gate pass is generated when the smart card is swiped in e-pos machine. All these measures are helping the water board to use the water effectively avoiding any misuse.
Source: The Hindu