HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) is all set to showcase a “steely resolve”. If everything goes well as it has planned, potable water will be supplied to consumers in steel tankers, operated by the water board , in another six months all over the city. The steel tankers will wear a swanky look on the lines of milk tankers.Presently, it has only 50 steel tankers and the target is to have 1,000 tankers made of steel in the next six months. HMWS&SB director (revenue) B Vijay Kumar Reddy told TOI, “we have invited expression of interest from national firms to run these steel tankers. Latest technology will be used in manufacturing the steel tankers.”The water board operates 1,000 tankers now— 800 on payment and the remaining 200 for free to the tail-end areas where there is no water supply network.“Though we provide pure and safe water, we end up receiving as many as 10 to 15 complaints every day on water containing rust and mud from consumers. We have identified that tankers which are made of iron develop rust. Improper clearing also often leads to formation of rust inside the tankers,” a senior official explained to TOI.The board operates tankers on hire by renewing licence every year. “We keep cautioning the tanker owners to keep them clean and free from rust but they ignore our pleas,” he said.Now, the water board has made it clear to the tanker owners that their licences would be renewed only if they convert their iron-made tankers into steel tankers. “Only a few tanker owners have come forward to convert them into steel tankers,” an official said.The water board collects Rs 500 for domestic trips to operate a 5 kilo litres (KL) tanker and Rs 1,000 for a 10KL tanker. Commercial tankers with a capacity of 5 KL, 10 KL and 20 KL charge Rs 850, Rs 1,700 and Rs 3,400 respectively.

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