The Hindu : Front Page : NTADCL slashes water tariff for dyeing units

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 12, 2006

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NTADCL slashes water tariff for dyeing units

M. Gunasekaran

TIRUPUR: By halving water tariff for dyeing and bleaching houses, New Tirupur Area Development Corporation Limited (NTADCL) has managed to increase its off-take by a moderate 35 per cent in a month.

The average industrial supply rose to 50 million litres a day (mld) in July from 36-37 mld a month ago. NTADCL slashed the water charges substantially from Rs 45 a kilo litre to Rs 23 a kilo litre from July 1. Though the off-take had not improved dramatically owing to the nature of off-season and 15 per cent of units remaining closed, the decision to cut the charges has had an impact on the industry, sources said. Tanker lorries have started disappearing from the congested roads of Tirupur.

Dyers' Association of Tirupur president N. Kandasamy said a section of the dyeing units had sold the tankers a year ago with the implementation of the scheme.

Some others who were hesitant to buy it on the ground that the tariff was high compared to that of the water supplied by the tankers also began switch over and selling the lorries.

Some local bodies are yet to give piped water to households owing to lack of infrastructure and others demand more water from NTADCL citing a surge in population.

Rapid expansion

The Veerapandy panchayat president, R. Kumar, says his panchayat gets nine lakh litres of water a day against the requirement of 18 lakh litres.

"We have to depend on this scheme as there is no resource to implement another scheme. In the last few years the locality experienced a rapid expansion and we need more water," he says.

Villagers buy water at a subsidised rate of Rs 3.50 a KL. While NTADCL explains that they supply water on the basis of the agreement, Mr. Kumar said all other villages, and especially Mudalipalayam, Murugampalayam, Chettipalayam, Thottipalayam and Nerupperichal on the periphery of Tirupur saw a big gap between supply and demand.

Sources indicate that any major increase in the quantum of drinking water could have an impact on the economic viability of the project.

Of the total capacity of 185 mld, allotment for industry was 115 mld and the remaining for drinking purpose. Sources are hopeful that the industrial off-take will touch 100 mld by October.

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