The KMC has decided to charge builders a fee for the potable water that will be supplied to new projects. Fixing the rate at Rs 400 per sq m, the civic body plans to start with residential complexes with more than 100 flats.
The proposal was passed at the mayor-in-council meeting on Friday, allowing the KMC buildings department to go ahead with the plan. Builders, however, seemed sceptical about the charge, demanding that the KMC should specify a deadline, within which filtered water supply to the new buildings would start.
According to a KMC buildings official, developers will need to pay the ‘water supply upgrade fee’ along with the building plan sanction fee, which is usually deposited before the civic body gives its stamp to the building plan. The amount collected from developers will be utilized to upgrade the infrastructure for potable water supply, which will include augmentation of water production at the treatment plants, setting up of new water treatment plants and booster pumping stations and laying of pipelines for areas, where residents are still dependent on groundwater.
An official pointed out that apart from upgrading the water treatment plant at Dhapa, the civic body would need to set up several booster pumping stations and lay major pipelines in the next two years to cater to large areas off EM Bypass as well as neighbourhoods from Jadavpur to Tollygunge.
“We have to build a huge infrastructure to cater potable water to residents of upcoming housing projects along Bypass and in parts of southeast Kolkata. The money to be collected from the housing projects will be used as an infrastructure development fee and the new charge will help us take up more development projects in future,” said a senior KMC water supply department official.
Builders pointed out that they were happy that the KMC was gearing up to supply filtered water to all parts of the city and that they had no objection to paying the new fees. But, they maintained that, the money should be utilized for the right reason and that the civic body should set a date for every project by which, the particular building or buildings would get potable water supply.
Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai) Bengal president Sushil Mohta suggested that the funds collected be deposited in an escrow account for proper utilization. Though KMC had been charging for drainage development for nearly 18 years, there were still many places where the services were not up to the mark, he added.
