Public health engineering department (PHED) minister Mahesh Joshi on Thursday released the policy for giving water connections to multi-storey buildings that will bring relief to over 25 lakh families across Rajasthan.
The minister said that in the latest state Budget, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had announced that the government would provide drinking water connections to multistorey buildings in urban areas through the schemes of PHED.
“The policy made by the department was approved by the cabinet on Wednesday. This policy will be equally applicable in all the urban areas of Rajasthan. As per the policy, RWA/developers will apply in the superintending engineer’s office concerned for drinking water connection in residential multistorey buildings. The application must be accompanied by a map of the building approved by the competent authority showing the category (residential/commercial) of all the units in it and the unit-wise carpet area,” said Joshi.
As per the policy, a multistorey building has been defined as one with a height of more than 15 metres from the plinth. If the ground floor is on a stilt or podium, the roof/podium level of the stilt floor will be considered for measuring the height.
Domestic drinking water demand in multistorey buildings will be calculated according to five persons per flat in flats up to 1,500 sq feet carpet area and seven persons per flat in flats of more than 1,500 sq feet carpet area.
For providing drinking water, the cost of infrastructure to be set up by PHED will be taken as a one-time fee that will be calculated on the total carpet area of the multistorey building.
The rates of the one-time fee for residential buildings will be Rs 25 per sq foot of the total carpet area and Rs 42 per sq foot of the total carpet area in commercial buildings. In multistorey buildings with mixed usage, it will be Rs 25 per sq ft of the total carpet area of the residential area and commercial rates for part of the building being used for commercial purposes.
For providing drinking water in multistorey institutional or industrial buildings, the share amount will be payable in full amount of the actual cost of the departmental infrastructure. The minimum amount of 25 per cent of the one-time fee will be paid by the RWA or be deposited by the developer. The remaining 75 per cent of the one-time fee will be payable along with the water consumption bill in 60 equal instalments with 9 per cent simple interest per year.
According to the policy, for providing drinking water connection to multistorey buildings, first preference will be given to residential buildings, second preference to commercial buildings, and third preference to institutional / industrial multistorey buildings.
