Metro water to install digital meters in Chennai
Posted on: 19/Sep/2019 10:14:16 AM
The news that metro water department is bringing digital meters in Chennai has been the topic of discussion for many now.
It must not be forgotten that decade back metro water failed in its attempt of installing manual meters in Chennai. Information collected is instead of manual meters metro water would be installing digital meters now. It is revealed that by early next year commercial establishments that are water-intensive would have digital meters. The digital meters would be installed in the existing residential buildings also later on.
Under Smart City Mission, metro water has begun installing digital meters in the Adyar zone to ensure judicious use of drinking water. The point here is out of 12,708 water-intensive consumers like hotels, educational institutions and IT companies etc targeted for Rs 9.5 crore project as many as 300 meters have been fixed till now. It must be noted that those establishments that use nearly 5000-kilo liters of water per month fall under the water-intensive consumer’s category.
A decade ago, water agency attempted metering system in Chennai city but because of issues like faulty meters and a lukewarm response from the residents etc metering system could not be implemented. To enable data transmission to the metro water server, radio frequency-based AMR devices are fitted in the chambers.
As per the officials belonging to the MWD, it is clear that bills would be generated based on the water consumed by the establishments. Information is metered were procured from France based company Hitron and at Fluid Control research Institute in Palakkad the sample meters were tested. Later, they were installed. In the next few weeks, about 400 meters would be installed. It was later mentioned by an MWD official that their department was expecting another consignment of meters in a fortnight.
By the digital meters, the accuracy could be superb. It must be noted that the manual meters were not accurate and they had frequent faults due to fluctuations in the water supply. The important point is manual meters installed in the buildings that have recently availed connections would also be changed to digital meters. By the month of January in 2020, all the commercial establishments would be covered under the metering system.
In the 191 filling points present in the 41 water filling stations in the Chennai city, metro water has started to install smart card-based water dispensers. The main purpose was to address the issue of unaccounted water and wastage.
