The Hindu Business Line : Dual pricing of industrial water supply in Tirupur

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Coimbatore Feb. 2 New Tirupur Area Development Corporation Ltd (NTADCL), the private-public partnership body that supplies industrial water for the Tirupur-based dyeing and bleaching units, has brought into vogue dual pricing of water it sells to industries.

The corporation, which has effected a hike in its water charges for the industrial consumers from February 1, has upped the piped water rate from Rs 23 to Rs 35 per 1,000 litre. But even within the hiked charge, it has now offered a 10 per cent discounted rate for those industries whose monthly offtake of water from the corporation is more than the agreed quantum.

In such cases, the units would be entitled to get the discounted rate for the entire quantity of water drawn, according to reliable industry sources.

This has meant that the units consuming more water than the originally committed quantity would be paying only Rs 31.50 per 1,000 litre against the general rate of Rs 35 fixed for the industrial supply. This is one way of encouraging the consumers opting to draw a higher quantum of water from the project, the sources added.

NTADCL, which launched commercial water supply to the Tirupur wet processing industries in May 2005, had then fixed its industrial water tariff at Rs 45 per kilolitre. But it had to reduce the tariff by half to Rs 23 in July last year in the wake of erosion in water drawal by the user industries, caught in the effluent discharge wrangle.

The tariff cut was made to encourage volume consumption by the industrial consumers.

The corporation's industrial water supply project for Tirupur forms the major component of the Rs 1,023-crore integrated water and sanitation project, especially conceived for the hosiery exporting centre.

At the time of project implementation, the corporation is said to have assessed quantum of water for the industrial supply at around 108 million litres per day (mld), out of the total project capacity of 185 mld. But the actual water drawal by the Tirupur industries even one year after commercial supply to them is estimated at about 75 mld on normal weekdays.

With the Tirupur dyeing industry faced with litigations on environmental front and constrained over discharge of effluent, majority of units do not operate for two weekend days.

This has, according to sources, actually brought down the industrial water usage to an average 55 mld.

However, the prospects for higher drawal of water by the wet processing industries in Tirupur in the wake of Tamil Nadu Government proposal to implement a comprehensive Rs 700-crore marine disposal scheme for the State's textile dyeing industry clusters, including Tirupur, have brightened up NTADCL to have a relook on encouraging the industrial consumers for a higher water offtake.

More Stories on : Water | Knitwear & Hosiery | Tamil Nadu

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