Telangana Water Grid, Mission Bhagiratha to yield free water, for now

Hyderabad: People can avail of the services of the Telangana State Water Grid, Mission Bhagiratha, for free initially. Water will be charged only after the project is complete by mid-2018.

The government plans to reduce some of its financial burden by supplying 10 per cent of the water to industries for which tariff will be fixed.

The operational costs are pegged at Rs 1,000 crore per year. Most households will be covered by 2017-end itself and all households will continue to receive water for free till 2018-end.

“The CM asked us not to levy water charges till the project is entirely completed as per deadline and we can provide uninterrupted water supply to each and every household. Then public opinion will be sought in every village and town on the quantum of charges to be fixed," said Vemula Prashanth Reddy, vice-chairman, TS Water Grid Corporation. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao heads the corporation.

Mr Rao has announced several times earlier that the TRS would not seek votes in the 2019 general elections if it failed to deliver the project by then.

Nearly 65,000 households in Gajwel would start receiving water for free from Sunday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches the scheme. In three months, another  nine constituencies in Nalgonda, Warangal, Ranga Reddy and Mahbubnagar would get free water.