Mysuru civic body extends Jusco water contract

The Mysore City Corporation (MCC) has decided to extend the contract with the Jamshedpur Utilities Supply Company (Jusco) for the supply of drinking water to Mysuru, which was to expire on Tuesday, by four months.

After a prolonged row that extended to Tuesday’s adjourned MCC Council, its members finally gave their consent to extend the six-year tripartite contract with the Jusco, a Tata Company, till May 2015.

In the agreement between the MCC, Karnataka Urban & Water Supply Drainage Board (KUWS&DB) and Jusco, entered on November 28, 2008, the Jamshedpur company was assigned the task of providing 24x7 water supply to consumers in the city. This envisaged undertaking the upgrade of water supply pipelines and setting up of a distribution network for which it has to be paid Rs 161.89 crore which includes Rs 120.27 crore for the works and Rs 41.62 crore for operation and maintenance. It was also given a year’s time for preparation to implement the project.

However, the failure of Jusco to meet the target within the stipulated six years, had come in for criticism from many quarters, including consumers and elected representatives. Penalty had also been levied on a few occasions on the Jusco. A chief reason for Jusco failing to reach the target is attributed to the deficiencies in the terms of contract, including inadequate data.

The contract had mentioned that Jusco was to provide 24X7 water supply to 117,000 connections, while a survey by it subsequently revealed that the actual number of connections were 175,000. This had resulted in a revised plan for Rs 212 crore and a consequent delay, according to Jusco sources.

The councillors, who were expressing divergent views on extending the contract, gave their consent after MCC Commissioner C G Besturmath informed the council that the KUWS&DB in its letter to MCC had recommended for the extension of the contract as it had failed to complete the works as per the agreement.

Another factor that favoured the extension was an opinion that the Vani Vilasa Water Works (VVWW), which had been operating and maintaining the city’s water supply system earlier, was ill-equipped and had inadequate human resources to operate and maintain the new water supply system that would remain partially executed.

VVWW Executive Engineer Jayaram informed the council that the MCC would have to spend Rs 2 crore per month to maintain the city’s water supply, including Rs 25 lakh for billing and collection, Rs 20 lakh for borewell and pumpset repair works, Rs 95 lakh for maintaining pipelines and Rs 60 lakh towards additional labour cost.

According to the data provided by Jusco, a total of 1,156 km pipeline had been laid in the city while the initial target was 910 km, and 108,250 houses were being supplied water of the targeted 120,000 houses. Initially, the target was 117,000 houses. Of this, 14,430 houses were being provided with 24x7 water. So far, it had spent Rs 90.81 crore, including Rs 74.95 crore on works and Rs 15.86 crore on operation and maintenance.