HI-TECH: A hand-held machine that is used for issuing bills to consumers. Photo: K.Gopinathan

BANGALORE: If the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) plans to go hi-tech materialise this time, soon your water bills will be issued on the spot.

Though the board had chalked out a similar proposal during the tenure of the former chairman M.N. Vidyashankar, it was unable to implement the plan as the company that had bagged the contract failed to provide the services within the stipulated time.

Transparency

Now, the board is all set to invite fresh tenders for the project by modifying the old conditions and if all goes well, water bills will be issued on the spot in the next two months.

According to a top BWSSB official involved in the project, this measure will help bring in transparency, as the bills can be produced within 30 seconds in the presence of the consumer.

This will also reduce workload on the meter readers, who presently visit homes twice — once to take the reading and next to give the bill.

The board had earlier short-listed a Hyderabad-based company for supplying the handheld machines. But the company failed to provide the services within the prescribed time and the board was forced to forfeit the company's deposit, the official said.

Tenders

Earlier, if the first lowest bidder failed to provide the services, there was a provision to consider the second lowest bidder.

But the board has to invite fresh tenders now as per the new rules.

"The project, which was kept in abeyance after that, is now being reworked. We are planning to consider companies that are experienced in such services. This will be one of the new tender conditions so that only reputed firms apply," the official said.

Pointing out that the board wants to hire the machines from the company on a monthly rental basis, the official said, "we need over 200 machines to cover the entire city. We cannot buy them because these machines get obsolete very fast. The selected company will be asked to enter the existing data into their computers and also maintain the records."

As there was not much training required to use the machine, the meter readers could read a customer's meter, punch in the reading and generate a bill in just half a minute, the official said.

Similar hand-held machines are already in use by Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) to issue power bills and Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) to issue property tax receipts.

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