Mobile water supply in Chennai to be hit from June 1 as Metrowater lorries plan to go on strike

Mobile water supply in south Chennai and parts of north Chennai may be severely hit as tanker operators attached to Chennai Metrowater will go on strike from June 1.

Mobile water supply in south Chennai and parts of north Chennai may be severely hit as tanker operators attached to Chennai Metrowater will go on strike from June 1.

Citing various reasons, including inordinate delay in filling points at Area 9, Metrowater Tanker Lorry Contractors Association have announced that lorries on Area 9 (Teynampet) and Area 1 (Tiruvottiyur) covering localities such as T. Nagar, Mylapore, R.A. Puram, Nungambakkam, Kodambakkam and Tiruvottiyur would not ply trips from Thursday. Nearly 45 lorries being operated in these zones will stay off roads.

The Association’s president P.S. Sundaram said lorries waited for long hours to fill water in Valluvar Kottam filling station. Out of 16 filling points, only five were being operated for nearly two months and this caused inordinate delay in even providing six to seven trips allotted for each lorry in the zone.

Moreover, the filling points near MLA hostel remained closed for over two years now citing lack of manpower. If the filling station is reopened, about 70-80 trips in Triplicane and surrounding areas could be operated seamlessly, saving time and fuel. In Tiruvottiyur zone, tankers plied for long distance beyond 15 km. But they are being paid low charge for additional km operated in a day, he said.

The association also wanted average number of trips to be worked out for the 475 lorries operated on contract. While some lorries plied nearly 15 trips in some zones, tankers in other zones operated an average of 6 or 7 trips daily.

Lorry operators also complained of mismatch of trip details in computerised system and logbook entry. This often led to providing street supply in different locations and GPS tracked lorries are blocked from trips despite not being on fault. Issues must be sorted out at area level instead of head office as this led to delay in operation for nearly a month.

The association secretary S. Kesavaram said it takes nearly 45 days for fortnight bills to be settled. The water agency must settle bills through electronic clearing system. The issues have not been sorted out despite many representations to the officials. If the issues in the two zones remained unsolved, all lorries in 15 zones would stay off roads in the coming days, the association said.