Bengaluru: You may have to cough up more for Cauvery water soon. If there is one department which was waiting for the Lok Sabha elections to get over, it was Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, which wants to increase the water tariff by 10-15 percent.
The last time the water tariff was revised was in 2014, which was almost a decade after the hike in 2005. “Almost five years have passed since the water tariff was revised. The board is incurring big losses as the power tariff has gone up considerably. We are paying over Rs 50 crore in power bills, and power tariff goes up every year,” said a senior engineer at BWSSB.
Accepting that the board cannot hike water tariff like Bescom every year, he said that their proposal to the state government to increase water tariff once in every three years was struck down last year.
“As hike in water rates directly impacts political fortunes, no political party in power gives the nod. But we don’t have any option. All engineers will sit with our chairman Tushar Girinath and decide on the rate of hike in tariff,” he said.
“We have not yet on the quantum of increase. We are aiming to propose 10-15 percent hike. After the meeting we will send the proposal to the state government for its approval. This will be a relief as we can take care of power tariff and the cost of maintenance of sewage treatment plants,” he said.
