It’s not the water stock for which the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has to worry about, the civic body is also having a tough time recovering bills due for over two decades. The BMC has an outstanding amount of Rs 2,092.02 crore, including those from its own administrative buildings.
According to Mid-Day, the BMC’s hydraulic engineering department has a total of 2,28,528 defaulters. Properties owned by the civic body too have defaulted water payment apart from private buildings which owe the BMC Rs 1127.96 crore along with various other government agencies. Civic properties across the city owe about Rs 5.79 crore to the BMC. In the meanwhile, even the Central government owes BMC Rs 32.15 crore over the last two decades, the Central Railway and Western Railway have dues pending worth Rs 188.95 crore and Rs 242.41 crore respectively.
A senior civic official told the leading daily, “The outstanding amount is collated since 2001 when we began the computerisation of bills and includes 2 percent of monthly additional charges for defaulting payments. While we go easy on government agencies and do not disconnect the supply, we are continuously sending them reminders of the pending dues.”
Across Mumbai, there 3,68,968 water connection meters that supply water. For which residential buildings pay Rs 4.67 per 1,000 litres and slum dwellers pay Rs 3.5 per 1,000 liters. And from April 2018 to March 31 this year, the city has consumed 81.45 crore kilo litres of water for which the bills were rolled out last month.
