HYDERABAD: Apartment dwellers in the twin cities will have to shell out sewerage maintenance charges of Rs. 125 each every month, beginning most likely January. Hitherto the board used to collect 35 per cent of the monthly domestic water bill of the entire apartment as sewerage cess.

While only one domestic connection caters to the entire apartment -- on an average there are at least 10 flats in each of them -- the load on the board's sewerage network was heavy and revenue far below what is due to it.

Proposal cleared

With the same domestic connection an individual household also pays the same charges while the corresponding load on the sewage system was far less. The proposal was cleared by the Chief Minister's Office and a GO was expected next week. "There is a glaring difference in the amounts paid by individual households and apartment dwellers denying the board a considerable volume of revenue. We are not getting the expected revenue from the multi-storeyed apartments even as the archaic sewerage system is being put under immense pressure," the Director, Technical, HMWSSB, M. Satyanarayana explained.

There are some 7,000 apartment complexes on its system with 1.5 lakh flats in them, all contributing about Rs.70 lakhs as on date towards sewerage cess. An individual household with domestic water connection pays about Rs.135 for the water bill (35 per cent of it amounting to about Rs.45 goes to sewerage maintenance), the cess comes to barely Rs.10 or even less for flat owners. With the new levy, the board plans to increase the same to about Rs.1.75 crores every month. Mr. Satyanarayana said commercial establishments too were putting a similar dent on the water board revenue. Nursing homes, hotels, theatres which handle heavy flow of people everyday also get away paying very little sewerage cess. "We will levy the sewerage maintenance charges on them as well based on the total area of the place. Every 1,000 sq.ft. will be considered as one unit and the cess volume appropriately arrived at," he said.

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