BWSSB studying bids of French firms on water supply contract

By Divya Sreedharan

BANGALORE, NOV. 24. Will the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) decide on letting private sector participation in two City pilot areas by the month-end?

High-ranking sources in the BWSSB told The Hindu that the board was ``rigorously working on the matter''. A decision is expected to be taken this month-end.

The board is considering financial models submitted by two France-based companies -- Ondeo Services (earlier called Northumbrian) and Vivendi Water -- for a five-year delegated management contract. The board has even prepared a report on ``public-private sector participation in water supply and sanitation'' with reference to the project.

The project envisages private sector involvement in two pilot areas. One area has 1,11,124 connections and covers the entire South Division, the Chikklalbagh service station and C3 sub- division. The other has 85,630 connections and comprises the entire West division and two service stations in C1 sub-division.

As per the BWSSB report, Ondeo Services and Vivendi water say that O&M (operation and maintenance) cost for five years comes to Rs. 19.93 crore (west zone) and Rs. 21.98 crore (south zone). Operator fees for the two pilot areas comes to approximately Rs. 134 crores for five years.

According to sources, a delegated management contract implies that the private sector partners will provide the expertise, while ``everything else, infrastructure, manpower and so on, is from our side.'' Asked why two foreign firms were shortlisted instead of any Indian firms, the sources said only Ondeo Services and Vivendi Water had the necessary experience in the field. ``They have done projects in more than 70 countries,'' they said.

The two pilot areas selected are similar in size and revenue. The BWSSB's revenue from South is about Rs. 45 crores per year while from the West it was Rs. 50 crore. Besides,

the selected areas have a population of a little over 10 lakh each.

Selection was restricted to areas that were nearly equal with regard to the number of connections, quantity of water supplied, annual revenue, and population, including slum dwellers.

The BWSSB report says the two private firms ``will be responsible for implementing capital expenditure works required for refurbishing sewerage, underground water supply, and groundwater supply assets. They will have to attend to mechanical complaints and identify\rectify major sewerage blockage.''

The first year, the status of UFW (unaccounted for water) and duration of consumer complaints, will be studied. By the end of five years, the present UFW of 38.2 per cent should be reduced to around 15 per cent.

After five years, the BWSSB may either take back maintenance of the two areas or if the private sector ``performance is found satisfactory,'' it may go in for a long-term concession contract of 25-30 years.

In this case, the entire city distribution is to be divided into two and each part handed over to a private sector operator based on competitive bidding.

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