BANGALORE: Soon the water supply in your area may not depend on the whims and fancies of the jurisdictional Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board's (BWSSB) valveman. To ensure disciplined and regular supply, the board is planning computerised control of all drinking water valves in and around the city.

The board is planning to control the timings of supply and pressure of water flow through `Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition' (SCADA). Such a system has already been introduced at the pumping station at Torekadanahalli and it is working well.

A team of BWSSB engineers left for Tirupur in Tamil Nadu on Thursday to study the implementation of such a system there.

The board has been frequently receiving complaints about intermittent supply from all over the city.

This system has been planned to check irregular water supply and also ensure that the timings of supply hours are fixed.

Feasibility

Top officials from the board, who are studying the technical feasibility of introducing SCADA all over the city, are also on the job of locating main valves that can be centrally controlled through computers.

BWSSB Chief Engineer (Maintenance) L.S. Khandappanavar told The Hindu on Saturday that the team, which is likely to return from Tirupur on Monday, would submit a report on the system.

"We will float tenders for the project only after studying the technical feasibility," he said.

Mr. Khandappanavar said SCADA could be initially implemented on a pilot basis in the seven city municipal councils and one town municipal council, where the Greater Bangalore Water Supply Project was on.

"It may be difficult to introduce the system all over the city simultaneously because it involves road digging to install cables," he pointed out.

He pointed out that after introducing SCADA, the board would have to ensure that the power cables connecting the area valves to the main control points were not damaged during flooding. "We are trying to locate valves in areas that are not prone to inundation. The system can be first introduced in these areas," he said.

Though the proposal to introduce SCADA was planned during the former BWSSB chairman Ashok Kumar C. Manoli's tenure, the process of implementing it has gained momentum in the last two months.

Under the Cauvery Water Supply Scheme Stage IV, Phase II, BWSSB has also planned to introduce SCADA in the existing water treatment plants, pumping stations and sewage treatment plants.

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