Hyderabad: The soaring mercury levels have introduced a fresh set of headaches for the thousands of private hostels that have mushroomed in various parts of the city in the recent past.
With borewells drying up, hostel owners have been depending on water tankers for the past few weeks but getting a tanker every day, and on time, has become a major challenge for them.
These hostels offer lodging and boarding facilities to working men and women, students pursuing UG or PG studies and engineering graduates who have signed up for various software courses, especially in Ameerpet.
Monthly fees range from Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000 depending on the amenities offered such as free WiFi, laundry services, individual rooms etc. Mostly apartments and individual houses with multiple floors are hired for hostels and each one has a strength of 60 to 100 members. “We are clueless how to meet the present water crisis,” said Mr Srinivas of Sri Godavari Working Men’s Hostel in Madhapur.
“Ninety per cent of inmates are software employees. All of them leave for offices in the morning, and imagine how their daily schedule can get disrupted if there is no water. We are sourcing water from private tankers, but with the current heavy demand, getting one tanker a day is a big bonus,” he said, adding that close to 500 hostels exist in and around Madhapur. “Earlier water was kept available 24X7. Due to the current crisis, we are releasing water just for a few hours in the morning and in the evening. Hostel inmates are being told to use water judiciously,” the hostel owner added. Echoing similar views was A. Srinivas, who runs Sri Chaitanya Executive Men’s Hostel in Ameerpet.
“Now that the Revenue department is keeping a vigil on illegal drawing of water, private tankers are charging between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500, instead of the earlier '700. We cannot depend on Water Board tankers in view of the waiting time of a week to 10 days. I booked one on March 15 and the tanker came on March 24,” he said.
Hostel owners are making it a point to inform students or job holders about limited water availability at least for the next two months.
