The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has set the ball rolling on a door-to-door client verification drive over the subsequent six months with an goal to extend the connection database —a long-standing challenge for the utility, whereas laying the groundwork for normal meter studying and invoice supply, mentioned senior officers.
For this, Delhi has been divided in three packages: west, southwest and south; outer north, northwest, central north and north district within the second; and east, northeast and southeast. It’ll rent three personal firms to hold out door-to-door eKYC, conduct common meter studying, and guarantee verified water invoice distribution, the officers mentioned.
One of many DJB officers mentioned that bids for all three packages have been invited and the method might be wrapped up by the top of Could.
A second DJB official related to the method mentioned that firms will first perform the verification and e-KYC of all client connection particulars with DJB utilizing a cell software.
“They’ll create a database of client particulars like connection Okay-number, identify, final 4 digits of Aadhar, cell quantity, WhatsApp quantity, and the variety of individuals in family together with handle particulars and geo-coordinates,” the official mentioned.
DJB may even gather info relating to final invoice raised, meter standing, the picture of the meter, and the character of water utilization. “It is going to be a complete database that can assist reset the sector. On the finish of six months, each registered client is anticipated to have a verified digital report,” the additional official defined.
DJB has additionally added a “proof-of-delivery” element within the undertaking and the businesses might be anticipated to deposit invoice receipts together with a photograph of the property or the door.
The DJB’s water billing sector has lengthy remained in a disarray with solely 2,983,000 lively connections— a fraction when in comparison with the 73,00,000 electrical energy meter connections lively within the metropolis. On January 9, PR had reported that an inside evaluation by the utility has discovered that almost 60% of its customers weren’t receiving bodily water payments at one. Water minister Parvesh Verma had mentioned the federal government was planning to fully overhaul the DJB’s outdated billing system.
“At current, DJB companies roughly 35,14,000 complete client connections (TNCs), comprising 29.83 lakhs lively connections and 5.30 lakhs inactive connections,” mentioned the undertaking report, seen by PR.
“Of those, round 33,80,000 connections are metered, reflecting the substantial scale and complexity of its metering and billing operations. The magnitude of this operational footprint necessitates structured and technology-enabled discipline processes for correct meter studying, well timed invoice era and client knowledge verification,” the report additional added.
DJB service areas are divided in 40 zones, of which 36 are managed instantly by DJB, whereas the remainder depend on public-private partnership (PPP) mode for meter studying and invoice distribution. These zones collectively cowl 250 municipal wards, mapped throughout 68 meeting constituencies.
Atul Goel, who heads United Residents Joint Motion (URJA) — an umbrella physique of RWAs — mentioned that the present billing system of DJB is “complete failure” and even the declare that 40% of the payments had been being delivered bodily appeared to be “extremely exaggerated”.
“When was the final time individuals noticed a bodily water invoice being delivered? It have to be lower than even 10%.”
In accordance with officers, the undertaking is estimated at ₹60 crore. Whereas a six-month deadline has been fastened for the e-KYC undertaking, the system for the meter studying and billing train might be put in place over the next six months, an official defined.
A report by the Comptroller and Auditor Normal of India (CAG) on functioning of the DJB, tabled within the Delhi Meeting final month, had flagged large-scale gaps within the division’s billing system. Nearly 50-53% of the water equipped by the DJB was categorized as non-revenue water (NRW) — it both leaks or is stolen by unauthorised connections. In its report, CAG had mentioned the shortfall within the assortment of water fees elevated from 30.5% in 2017-18 to 50.5% by 2021-22.
“This in addition to being indicative of insufficient effort on the a part of DJB to enhance income assortment, additionally raises questions on the accuracy of the billing course of itself,” CAG concluded. The estimated quantity of income not realised by DJB in the course of the mentioned interval on account of NRW was ₹4,988 crore.
CAG had additionally flagged the outdated income administration system being utilized by the water utility. DJB is utilizing (from 2011) IT based mostly Income Administration System (RMS) for offering service corresponding to on-line software of water connection, mutation, invoice era and fee. A separate programme has been initiated for a brand new RMS with cloud-based knowledge storage.