By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) will soon introduce one-litre water bottles at a cheaper rate, a top official said here Monday.
“We plan to enter the one-litre bottled water segment very soon, though right now only discussions are on,” Santosh Vaidya, additional chief executive of DJB told IANS on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry seminar.
“The pricing will be competitive like Rail Neer’s bottles. May be at around Rs.10,” he said.
While one-litre bottles of Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coca Cola’s Kinley are priced at Rs.13, Bisleri sells for Rs.12.
DJB is already selling 20-litre jars and 250-millilitre glasses of packaged drinking water through its franchisee – Jal Suvidha Kendra.
“We will also increase the number of our franchisees in the city to meet the enormous demand,” Vaidya said without divulging further details.
The DJB has a bottling plant in Greater Kailash area of south Delhi from where it distributes drinking water to all its franchisees.
The board will also install 400 bulk meters in its 22 zones from where water is supplied to residential areas and official complexes to gauge the amount of water being pumped into each area.
“About 20 meters will be installed in each zone. This will help us have a uniform water supply system across the city and will also help in knowing the problem areas where there are problems in the supply,” Vaidya said.
He added that the board was suffering huge revenue losses due to leakage and faulty meters. “We incur about 40 percent of revenue loss due to leakage and faulty meters, and at some places there are no meters at all.”
“To plug this hole in our revenue model, we have ordered 100,000 new meters,” Vaidya said.
These meters will be installed soon, starting with priority customers, the people who pay bills on time and have clean records.